LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

University  of  California. 

GIFT  OF 

Y.  M.  C  A.  OF  U.  C, 


Accession       ;K):1699        Class 


GEORGE  :  WELLS :  ARMES 
MEMORIAL  LIBRARY  *  *  + 
STiLE5  HALL BERKELEY 


&!)CB  Mint. 


&J)ey  $vise. 


SUGGESTIVE  INQUIRIES 


CONCERNING  THE 


Resurrection  of  the  Dead, 


AS  TAUGHT 


IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT. 


D.  A.   DRYDEN. 

W  OF  THE 

UKlVFfiSITY 


CINCINNATI: 

HITCHCOCK    AND    WALDEN, 

FOR    THE    AUTHOR. 

1872. 


D7 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1872, 
BY  D.  A.  DRYDEN, 

In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


To 

Hon.  John  T.  Wilson, 


WHOSE  HOME  WAS  A  REFUGE  FOR   ME  IN   POVERTY 
AND  SUFFERING  LONG  YEARS  AGO, 


BY  WHOSE  GENEROSITY  THIS   LITTLE  VOLUME   IS 
SENT  OUT  UPON   ITS   MISSION  : 

IT    IS    GRATEFULLY    DEDICATED    BY 


n$  author. 


101699 


Preface. 


THE  character  and  design  of  this  little 
treatise  are  indicated  on  the  title-page. 
It  is  an  attempt,  at  least,  at  an  independent 
and  candid  study,  and  suggestive  statement, 
of  just  what  the  New  Testament  does  teach 
concerning  the  resurrection  of  the  dead.  It  is 
written  neither  in  the  interest  of  any  Church 
creed  or  theological  doctrine,  nor  with  the  de- 
sign to  controvert  any.  The  author  has  en- 
deavored, as  far  as  possible,  to  free  his  mind 
from  all  prejudice — even  from  the  bias  of  pre- 
conceived opinions  and  theological  teachings — 
so  as  to  go  to  the  written  Word  itself,  dili- 
gently  and    prayerfully,    seeking    to   discover 


VIII  PREFACE. 

just  what  it  does  teach  on  this  deeply  interest- 
ing subject.  That  he  has  been  led  to  give  ex- 
j^ression  to  many  expositions  and  conceptions 
which  do  seemingly  come  in  conflict  with  the 
generally  accepted  theological  doctrines  of  the 
resurrection  of  the  body,  there  is  no  doubt. 
And  to  many,  probably,  the  views  expressed 
on  this  feature  of  the  subject  will  be  con- 
sidered as  antagonizing  the  orthodox  faith  of 
the  Church.  But  the  author,  could  not  do 
otherwise  and  give  full  and  free  expression  to 
what  has  to  him  all  the  reality  of  life-giving 
conceptions,  and  conscious  realizations  of  the 
truth  of  the  Divine  Word.  But  if,  instead  of 
antagonizing  the  faith  and  subverting  the  hope 
of  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  these  sugges- 
tive views  should  but  lead  to  a  different  per- 
ception of  the  Divine  order  and  manner  of  that 
consummation — bringing  it  nearer,  giving  it  a 
place  even  in  the  conscious  realizations  of  the 
Divine  life  of  the  soul — then  let  them  not  be 
too  hastily  condemned  or  despised.     They  may 


PREFACE.  IX 

bring  light,  and  comfort,  and  spiritual  life,  to 
some  souls,  which  they  may  not  find  even  in 
the  venerable  and  authoritative  teachings  of 
orthodoxy.  And  if  even  a  few  souls  should 
be  awakened  from  a  mere  formal,  lifeless, 
churchly  belief  in  a  long,  future,  earthly  res- 
urrection, to  a  personal,  conscious  realization 
of  the  life-giving  power  of  the  resurrection  and 
the  life  in  Jesus,  it  will  be  an  abundant  reward 
for  all  the  labor  these  inquiries  have  cost, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  reach  the  end  aimed  at 
in  their  publication. 

D.  A.  D. 


^*^*fc- 


Introduction. 


REV.  D.  A.  DRYDEN,  of  the  California 
Annual  Conference,  has  written  a  book. 
He  is  not  "mine  adversary,"  therefore  I  did 
not  wish  him  to  write  it.  He  rejects  the 
Eyspatq  of  the  body  that  dies — at  least  the 
common  view — and  argues  with  much  indus- 
try and  ingenuity  in  support  of  another  theory 
of  interpretation.  He  seeks  to  show  that  the 
terms  peculiar  to  the  controversy  are  intended 
to  convey  a  meaning  different  from  that  which 
is  usually  accepted. 

I  must  dissent  alike  from  his  premises,  his 
processes,  and  his  conclusions.  To  me  there 
is  nor  root,  nor.  substance,  nor  strength,  nor 


xil  INTRODUCTION. 

beauty  in  any  extant  substitute  for  the  old 
doctrine  of  "the  hope  and  resurrection  of  the 
dead."  But  a  thoroughly  intimate  acquaint- 
ance of  nineteen  years  with  the  author  enti- 
tles me  to  say,  without  apology,  that  he  is 
studious,  large-natured,  genuinely  honest,  out- 
spoken, generous  to  his  opponents,  tender  as 
charity,  brave  as  fidelity,  without  envy,  and 
without  art.  He  has  helped  to  fight  every 
good  fight  in  his  day  and  place,  and  has 
nobly  earned  the  right  to  be  heard.  He  has 
felt  the  wear  of  hard  service,  known  the  deep- 
est discipline  of  sorrow,  and  holds  the  torch 
of  his  cherished  belief  above  three  graves 
where  the  joy  of  his  life  was  buried. 

Since  controversies  must  needs  arise,  is  it 
not  well  to  read  what  earnest,  truth-loving 
men  say  on  that  side  which  to  us,  mayhap, 
is  "the  other  side?"  I  have  tried  to  under- 
stand my  excellent  brother's  views.  The  fail- 
ure, if  failure  there  be,  is  the  fault  of  the 
taught,  not   of   the   teacher.     To   hear   them 


INTRODUCTION.  xiii 

repeated  and  read  them  in  proof  has  tended 
to  exalt  my  appreciation  of  the  venerable 
"faith  which  was  once  delivered  unto  the 
saints."  I  shall  read  the  book  again — and, 
if  it  be  not  impertinent,  ask  all  who  feel 
an  interest  in  the  great  subject  to  read  it — 
not,  indeed,  without  a  mixture  of  regret,  but 
with  the  warmest  affection  for  the  author  and 
the  frankest  concession  of  his  right  to  think, 
preach,  and  publish  as  long  as  he  does  not 
impair  the  force  of  Christian  motives  nor 
attempt  to  clothe  his  sentiments  in  mislead- 
ing disguises.  The  sturdier  his  blows  the 
better.  I  should  not  like  to  take  shelter 
under  a  belief  which  is  safe  only  while  unas- 
sailed.  If  my  friend  must  follow  his  convic- 
tions to  such  an  issue,  it  affords  me  genuine 
pleasure  to  commend  the  ardor  and  skill 
with  which  he  espouses  his  task.  It  greatly 
pleases  me  that  he  has  proved  able  to  put 
the  marrow  of  the  prolonged  controversy  into 
one  small  volume,  which  all  classes  may  read 


xiv  INTRODUCTION. 

with  sincere  respect  for  the  integrity  and 
'  ability  of  the  writer.  It  is  a  happy  instance 
in  which  we  may  admire  the  acumen  and 
weigh  the  argument,  without  deploring  the 
animus  of  the  book.  * 

The  scheme  of  this  work  includes  one 
thing  which  demands  special  consideration. 
It  has  inherent,  and  historic,  and  theological 
importance.  I  refer  to  the  interpretation  of 
£%  as  meaning  "the  under  world"  or  place 
of  departed  spirits.  There  is  reason  to  sus- 
pect that  the  Protestant  Church,  in  her 
resentment  against  the  Papistic  figment  of 
purgatory,  has  taken  up  a  position  considera- 
bly on  the  other  side  of  the  interlying  truth. 
It  is  certainly  desirable  that  the  Church 
should  have  a  definite  statement  on  so  grave 
a  subject.  Whatever  intelligent  readers  may 
think  of  the  use  which  the  author  makes  of 
the  doctrine  of  hades,  they  will  find  it  to 
their  advantage  to  review  the  general  sub- 
ject   with    candor    and    research.      Theology 


INTRODUCTION.  XV 

has  suffered  deeply — I  trust  not  irreparably — 
from  the  inexact  use  of  Scriptural  terms. 
When  -human  language  is  used  as  a  vehicle 
for  divine  thought,  every  word  is  entitled  to 
the  meaning  with  which  it  pleased  the  Holy 
Spirit  to  fill  it. 

I  am  not  unaware  of  the  unusual  char- 
acter of  this  introduction,  nor  insensible  to 
the  probability  that  strangers  may  regard  it 
as  needing  explanation.  But  to  the  gen- 
erous and  eminently  truthful  writer  of  the 
work,  and  to  all  such  as  happen  to  know  us 
both,  an  apology  would  appear  superfluous. 
I  therefore  conclude  these  hasty  paragraphs 
in  full  assurance  that  free  discussion  will 
magnify  the  truth,  and  in  the  cheerful  hope 
that  those  who  write  and  those  who  read 
may  alike  be  "raised  in  glory."  "So  shall 
we  ever  be  with  the  Lord." 

M.  C.  BRIGGS. 


THE 


Resurrection  of  the  Dead. 


CHAPTER  I. 


"And  have  hope  toward  God,  which  they  themselves  also 
allow  that  there  shall  be  a  resurrection  of  the  dead,  both  of 
the  just  and  of  the  unjust."  Acts  xxiv,  15. 

WHAT  do  the  Scriptures  teach  concern- 
ing the  resurrection  of  the  dead  ?  In- 
quiry will  be  confined  almost  exclusively  to 
the  New  Testament,  because  the  resurrection 
is  most  fully  and  clearly  taught  therein,  and 
because  the  Old  Testament  can  not  be  inter- 
preted to  teach  it  differently  from  the  New,  so 
that,  given,  the  resurrection  as  taught  in  the 
New,  and  you  have  it  as  taught  in  the  Old. 

9 


IO  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

What  is  the  New  Testament  meaning  of 
resurrection  ?  Perhaps  but  little  can  be  spe- 
cifically determined  on  this  point.  In  speaking 
of  the  resurrection,  New  Testament  authors 
make  use  of  two  Greek  verbs  in  their  various 
modes  and  tenses,  dfcyfcrtyti  and  lyeipu).  The 
use  is  about  equally  divided  between  them, 
and  sometimes  interchangeably  as  to  meaning. 
But  in  the  main  there  is  to  be  observed  a  nice 
distinction  in  the  use  of  these  verbs.  The 
former  is  used  in  speaking  of  the  fact  of  the 
resurrection,  and  the  latter  in  speaking  of  the 
manner  of  that  fact.  The  general  term  resur- 
rection made  from  these  verbs,  has  a  very  con- 
siderable latitude  of  meaning.  As  applied  to 
the  dead,  its  general  meaning  is,  that  they 
rise,  or  are  raised,  from  the  state  of  death,  and 
that  they  have  a  future  immortal  existence 
after  death.  Not  a  mere  psychical  or  spiritual 
rising  and  immortality,  but  corporeal  too — all 
that  constitutes  the  complete  personality.  It 
is  the  complete  antithesis  of  dying  and  death. 
Mark  xii,  27  ;  Luke  xx,  38 ;   1  Cor.  xv,  22. 

The  next  point  of  inquiry  may  be  made 
much  more  specific  and  decisive.  Of  whom, 
or    of    what    is   the    resurrection    predicated  ? 


THE    RESURRECTION    OF    THE    DEAD.        I  I 

Who  or  ivhat  is  to  rise?  The  dead,  say  New 
Testament  authors  uniformly,  almost  univer- 
sally, thus  :  "  As  touching  the  resurrection  of 
the  dead"  Matt,  xxii,  31;  "As  touching  the 
dead,  that  they  rise,"  Mark  xii,  21  ;  "As  the 
Father  raiseth  up  the  dead"  John  v,  21  ;  "Why 
incredible  that  God  should  raise  the  dead?" 
Acts  xxvi,  8  ;  "If  so  be  the  dead  rise  not,"  1 
Cor.  xv,  15  ;  "Resurrection  of  the  dead,"  Acts 
iv,  2  ;  "  From  the  dead"  Acts  xxiv,  15.  Thus 
uniformly  throughout  the  New  Testament  it  is 
the  dead  of  whom  the  rising  is  predicated. 
And  in  this  inquiry  it  is  of  prime  importance 
that  we  clearly  perceive  the  true  New  Testa- 
ment meaning  of  this  term  dead.  It  is  from 
the  Greek  wpoq  (singular),  nzpol  (plural).  Does 
this  term  mean  the  dead  as  persons,  or  does  it 
mean  the  bodies  of  the  dead,  or  dead  bodies  ? 
Is  the  term  vexpdq  used  in  the  New  Testament 
interchangeably  with  the  term  ropa,  body  ?  Is 
the  resurrection  predicated  of  the  dead  as  per- 
sons, or  is  it  predicated  only  of  the  bodies  of 
the  dead,  or  of  dead  bodies  ? 

Let  us  first  see  if  the  New  Testament  au- 
thors use  the  terms  vtxpoq  and  <rw;ia  inter- 
changeably,   or    whether    the    common    term 


12  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

dead,  so  uniformly  used  in  connection  with 
the  resurrection,  can  be  at  all  limited  to  mean 
body,  or  bodies  ;  and  how  can  we  better  do 
this  than  by  substituting  body,  or  bodies,  for 
the  term  dead  in  the  text  ?  Thus  see  whether 
the  obvious  meaning  will  be  the  same. 

The  following  will  serve  as  examples :  "  Have 
ye  not  read  he  is  not  the  God  of  the  bodies, 
but  of  the  living  ?"  Mark  xii,  26  ;  "  Blessed  are 
the  bodies  that  die  in  the  Lord,"  Rev.  xiv,  13  ; 
"  This  is  John  the  Baptist ;  he  is  risen  from 
the'  bodies"  Matt,  xiv,  2;  "Questioning  one 
with  another  what  the  rising  from  the  bodies 
should  mean,"  Mark  ix,  10  ;  "  Nay,  but  if  one 
went  to  them  from  the  bodies"  Luke  xvi,  30 ; 
44  After  he  arose  from  the  bodies"  Acts  x,  14 ; 
"  As  those  that  are  alive  from  the  bodies" 
Rom.  vi,  13  ;  "Brought  again  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  from  the  bodies"  Heb.  xiii,  20.  Now, 
in  these  texts  is  it  not  manifest  that  the  term 
dead  can  not  be  used  in  the  sense  of  body,  or 
bodies  ?  To  limit  the  dead  to  mean  body,  and 
to  use  vcxpds  interchangeably  with  <rwri.a,  does 
surely  destroy  the  obvious  meaning  of  these 
verses  of  the  Testament.  Nor  are  these  par- 
ticular texts  selected  specially  ;  but  the  same  is 


THE    RESURRECTION    OF   THE    DEAD.         1 3 

true  of  every  text  in  the  New  Testament  where 
the  term  dead  is  used  in  connection  with  the 
rising  or  resurrection  ;  not  one  in  which  the 
dead  can  be  limited  to  mean  the  body  without 
destroying  the  obvious  meaning  of  the  text. 
But  may  it  not  be  that  this  term  dead  is  used 
adjectively,  referring  to  body,  or  bodies,  under- 
stood, of  which  bodies  the  rising  is  affirmed  ? 
To  determine  this  we  need  but  supply  in  the 
texts  body  or  bodies  after  the  word  dead,  thus  : 
"  Questioning  one  with  another  what  the  rising 
from  the  dead  bodies  should  mean  ?"  "  Brought 
again  from  the  dead  bodies  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ ;"  "  Marvel  not  at  this,  for  the  hour  is 
coming  in  which  all  the  dead  bodies  that  are  in 
the  graves  shall  hear  his  voice,  and  shall  come 
forth ;  they  (dead  bodies)  that  have  done  good 
unto  the  resurrection  of  life  ;  they  (dead  bodies) 
that  have  done  evil  unto  the  resurrection  of 
damnation,"  John  v,  28,  29 ;  "Jesus  who  is  the 
first  begotten  of  the  dead  bodies"  Rev.  i,  5  ; 
"But  the  rest  of  the  dead  bodies  lived  not 
again,"  Rev.  xx,  5  ;  "  Blessed  are  the  dead 
bodies  that  die  in  the  Lord,"  Rev.  xiv,  13  ; 
"  What  shall  they  do  who  are  baptized  for  the 
dead  bodies  if  the  dead  bodies  rise  not  ?"  "  Why 


14  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

are  they  baptized  for  the  dead  bodies?"  i  Cor. 
xv,  27  ;  "  But  some  man  will  say,  how  are  the 
dead  bodies  raised  up,  and  with  what  body  do 
they  {dead bodies)  come?"  1  Cor.  xv,  35.  Now 
is  it  not  plain  enough  that  such  use  of  the 
term  dead  utterly  destroys  the  meaning  of  the 
texts?  So  then  it  is  manifest  that  vexpdq  can 
not  be  used  by  New  Testament  authors  inter- 
changeably with  aw/la,  and  "  the  dead"  can  not 
be  limited  in  meaning  to  the  bodies  of  the 
dead,  or  dead  bodies ;  then  the  resurrection 
can  not  be  predicated  of  bodies,  or  dead  bodies. 
The  rising  "  of  the  dead"  or  "from  the  dead," 
means  something  more  than  the  future  resur- 
rection of  bodies.  Hence  the  resurrection  of 
tlie  body,  or  the  corporeal  rising  of  the  dead, 
must  be  incidental  to  the  general  doctrine  of 
the  rising  of  the  dead,  and  will  be  carefully 
considered  when  our  inquiry  reaches  the  man- 
ner of  the  rising,  "  with  what  body  they 
come."  Let  us  just  here  pursue  still  further 
the  inquiry,  What  is  the  New  Testament 
meaning  of  vsxpot,  the  dead  ?  As  it  can  not  be 
limited  in  meaning  to  body,  or  bodies,  it  must 
take  in  the  whole  personalty.  It  must  be  used 
as  the  antithesis  of  living,  or  the  living ;  thus : 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.    1$ 

"  That  be  might  be  Lord  both  of  the  dead  and 
living"  Rom.  xiv,  9 ;  "Why  seek  ye  the  living 
among  the  dead?"  Luke  xxiv,  5  ;  "  God  is  not 
the  God  of  the  dead,  but  of  the  living"  Matt. 
jorii,  32  ;  Mark  xii,  27  ;  Luke  xx,  38.  Now 
what  constitutes  a  living  personality?  Not 
simply  a  body.  True,  in  an  accommodated  or 
figurative  way,  we  sometimes  speak  of  the  body 
as  the  person  ;  yet  we  know  that  a  living  body- 
is  not  a  living  person,  and  that  mere  bodies  do 
not  fill  the  meaning  of  that  phrase,  the  living; 
no  more  is  a  dead  body  a  dead  person.  True, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  living,  we  sometimes  speak 
of  the  body  or  corpse,  as  the  person.  This  is 
sometimes  done  by  New  Testament  authors, 
as  in  Matt,  viii,  22  ;  ix,  26  ;  John  xx,  13.  Yet 
we  know  the  corpse  is  not  the  dead  person \  but 
only  the  dissolving  earthly  casket.  Even  so 
we  know  that  dead  bodies  do  not  fill  the  mean- 
ing of  that  phrase,  the  dead.  Hence,  the  res- 
urrection must  be  predicated  of  the  dead  as 
persons,  including,  of  course,  their  corporeality 
or  bodies.  That  such  is  the  New  Testament 
meaning  of  "  the  dead,"  we  may  more  fully 
perceive  from  Paul's  doctrine  of  the  resurrec- 
tion.    Let  us  turn  first  to  1  Cor.  xv,  which  is 


l6  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

an  epitome  of  the  whole  Bible  teaching  of  the 
resurrection ;  all  other  teaching  is  fragmentary 
and  incidental  to  this.  Take  first  verses  12- 
2 1  :  "  Now  if  Christ  be  preached  that  he  rose 
from  the  dead,  how  say  some  among  you  that 
there  is  no  resurrection  of  the  dead  ?  But  if 
there  be  no  resurrection  of  the  dead,  then  is 
Christ  not  risen  :  and  if  Christ  be  not  risen, 
then  is  our  preaching  vain,  and  your  faith  is 
also  vain.  Yea,  and  we  are  found  false  wit- 
nesses of  God  ;  because  we  have  testified  of 
God  that  he  raised  up  Christ :  whom  he  raised 
not  up,  if  so  be  that  the  dead  rise  not.  For  if 
the  dead  rise  not,  then  is  not  Christ  raised:  and 
if  Christ  be  not  raised,  your  faith  is  vain  ;  ye 
are  yet  in  your  sins.  Then  they  also  which  are 
fallen  asleep  in  Christ  are  perished.  If  in  this 
life  only  we  have  hope  in  Christ,  we  are  of  all 
men  most  miserable.  But  now  is  Christ  risen 
from  the  dead,  and  become  the  first-fruits  of 
them  that  slept.  For  since  by  man  came 
death,  by  man  came  also  the  resurrection  of 
the  dead." 

In  these  verses  the  apostle  teaches  both 
the  resurrection  of  Christ  and  of  the  dead  in 
Christ.     He  establishes  the  fact  of  the  latter 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.    \J 

by  the  .established  fact  of  the  former.  They 
stand  or  fall  together.  If  Christ  be  not  risen, 
then  are  the  dead  not  raised  ;  and  if  there  be 
no  resurrection  of  the  dead,  if  the  dead  rise 
not,  then  is  not  Christ  raised.  But  now  is 
Christ  risen  from  the  dead.  The  fact  that 
Christ  is  risen  he  establishes  by  the  proofs 
stated  in  verses  3-8 :  "  He  arose  the  third 
day,  according  to  the  Scriptures,  was  seen  of 
Cephas,  (Peter,)  then  of  the  twelve  ;  after  that 
he  was  seen  of  more  than  five  hundred  breth- 
ren at  once,  of  whom  the  greater  part  remain 
unto  this  day.  After  that  he  was  seen  of 
James ;  then  of  all  the  apostles ;  and  last 
of  all  he  was  seen  of  vie  also."  With  such 
proofs  well  might  Paul  say,  "  Now  is  Christ 
risen  from  the  dead."  But  the  single  point 
of  inquiry  is  this :  What  is  Paul's  meaning  of 
the  dead  ?  Of  ivhat  does  he  predicate  the 
resurrection  ?  Of  what  does  he  predicate  the 
resurrection  of  Christ  ?  of  his  body  alone  ? 
Was  the  material,  fleshly  body  laid  in  the 
tomb  Christ ?  Would  the  raising  of  that 
alone  have  filled  the  New  Testament  teach- 
ing or  Paul's  idea  of  the  resurrection  of  the 
Christ  ?     How  would  such  a  resurrection  fill 


1 8  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

the  meaning  of  such  texts  as  these :  "  He, 
seeing  this  before,  spake  of  the  resurrection 
of  Christ,  that  his  soul  was  not  left  in  hades, 
neither  his  flesh  did  see  corruption,"  Acts  ii, 
31;  "  Wherefore  he  saith  when  he  ascended 
up  on  high  he  led  a  multitude  of  captives  and 
gave  gifts  unto  men.  Now  that  he  ascended, 
what  is  it  but  that  he  also  descended  first 
into  the  lower  parts  of  the  earth  [under  world, 
or  hades}  ?  He  that  descended  is  the  same 
also  that  ascended  up  far  above  all  heavens, 
that  he  might  fill  all  things."  Eph.  iv,  8-10. 
Now,  can  these  texts  by  any  just  interpreta- 
tion be  limited  to  mean  only  the  rising  of  the 
body  of  Christ  from  the  tomb  ?  Again :  "/ 
am  he  that  liveth  and  was  dead;  and  behold, 
/  am  alive  for  evermore,  and  have  the  keys  of 
hades  and  of  death."  Rev.  i,  18.  Does  the 
Christ  mean,  in  speaking  thus,  no  more  than 
that  his  body  was  dead  and  rose  again  from 
the  tomb  ?  Did  his  body  descend  into  the 
lower  world,  or  hades  ?  did  his  body  triumph 
over  hades  and  bear  away  the  key?  Cer- 
tainly not.  The  resurrection  of  Jesus  takes 
in  his  whole  human  personality.  It  includes 
the   fact   that   his   soul    descended    to   hades, 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.    19 

the  abode  of  the  dead,  as  certainly  as  that 
his  body  was  laid  lifeless  in  the  tomb.  It 
includes  the  glorious  fact  that  his  soul,  his 
real  self,  rose  again  from  the  place  of  the  dead 
as  certainly  as  that  his  body  rose  again  alive 
from  the  tomb,  and  that  he  bore  off  in  triumph 
the  keys  of  both  hades  and  death.  But  this 
glorious  fact  will  be  more  fully  considered  fur- 
ther on  in  our  inquiry.  Is  such  Paul's  idea  of 
the  resurrection  of  Christ  ?  and  was  this  his 
idea  of  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  ?  Does 
he  mean  thereby  no  more  than  the  future 
raising  again  of  dead  bodies  ?  Are  the  dead 
bodies  in  the  graves,  or  utterly  lost  in  dust, 
dead  persons  ?  Would  the  gathering  again  of 
such  matter,  even  into  former  shapes,  be  a  res- 
urrection of  the  dead?  Is  it  such  a  resurrec- 
tion which  Paul  so  enthusiastically  declares 
and  so  ably  proves  in  this  chapter? 

On  the  contrary,  the  whole  scope  and  design 
of  his  argument,  as  we  will  further  on  more 
fully  see,  seems  to  be  to  affirm  and  establish 
the  glorious  fact  of  a  rising  of  the  dead  and  a 
future  anastasis  of  the  dead  from  death  and 
after  death — an  anastasis  not  merely  of  the 
bodies  of  the  dead,  but  of  the  dead  themselves 


20  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

as  persons.  His  argument  is  not  against  those 
who  denied  a  bodily  resurrection  alone,  but 
who  denied  that  the  dead  rise  or  live  again  at 
all.  Their  philosophy  and  logic  of  life  was, 
They  that  are  fallen  asleep  in  death  are  per- 
ished ;  they  rise  no  more.  Therefore  let  us 
eat,  drink,  and  be  merry,  for  to-morrow  we  die. 
Let  us  make  the  most  of  this  life  before  we 
perish.  But  Paul's  philosophy  and  logic  are, 
The  dead  in  Christ  are  not  perished,  but  they 
rise ;  they  have  an  anastasis  after  death.  And 
if  in  this  life  only  we  have  hope,  we  are  of  all 
men  most  miserable.  Thus  the  radical,  obvi- 
ous idea  and  meaning  of  Paul's  resurrection 
of  the  dead  is  that  they  rise  to  a  future  life  of 
complete  personal  being  just  as  Christ  is  risen 
to  a  complete  personal  being  such  as  Paul  him- 
self saw  him.  Paul's  philosophy  of  the  anas- 
tasis of  the  dead  knows  nothing  about  that 
psychical,  metaphysical  immortality  of  disem- 
bodied souls  or  ghosts  of  which  some  of  the 
heathen  philosophers  dreamed,  and  of  which 
but  too  many,  even  in  the  Christian  Church, 
are  still  dreaming.  Nor  does  the  New  Tes- 
tament know  any  thing  about  this  ghostly 
immortality  of  naked,  shapeless  souls  only  as 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.    21 

it  has  been  foisted  into  its  meaning  by  those 
who  have  interpreted  by  the  murky  lights  of 
human  philosophies  at  best  but  semi-heathen. 
It  knows  the  dead  as  real,  substantial  persons, 
angels  or  men,  and  in  its  own  language  ever 
introduces  them  to  us  as  such,  and  not  as 
mere  "  shades,"  psychical  essences,  or  bodiless 
spirits. 


CHAPTER  II. 


"  O  death,  where  is  thy  sting  ?  O  Hades,  where  is  thy  vic- 
tory?"    i  Cor.  xv,  55. 

"And  death  and  Hades  were  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire." 
Rkv.  xx,  14. 

IN  these  inquiries  it  is  not  the  intention  to 
state  any  thing  dogmatically  as  the  teach- 
ing of  the  Word  concerning  the  resurrection. 
Yet  it  may  be  assumed  that  the  meaning  of 
New  Testament  authors  will  be  found  within 
the   circumference  of  these  four  hypotheses  : 

I.  That  at  death  both  soul  and  body  go 
into  the  grave,  and  there  remain  until  the 
general  resurrection,  which  will  consist  in  sud- 
denly raising  both  soul  and  body  out  of  the 
grave  at  the  last  day. 

II.  At  death  the  dying  person  is  rent  in 
twain.  The  soul,  or  spirit,  unclothed  of  all 
corporeality,  goes  to  heaven  or  hell.  The  body 
decays,  corrupts,  and  mingles  again  with  the 
general  combinations  of  matter  until  the  time 


TIi£    RESURRECTION    OF    THE    DEAD.         23 

of  the  resurrection,  when  the  particles  will  be 
gathered  again  by  the  miraculous  power  of 
God,  or  "  be  re-infused  by  the  returning  soul ;" 
and  the  personality  thus  for  years  or  centuries 
severed — part  in  the  dust,  part  in  the  spirit- 
world — will  be  again  reunited,  and  raised  from 
the  grave. 

III.  As  the  body  is  sown  in  death,  like  the 
corn  of  wheat,  it  is  quickened,  or  made  alive, 
and  rises  a  spiritual  body,  suited  to  the  state 
or  condition  of  the  soul,  forming  its  corpore- 
ality ;  so  that  the  dead  enter  hades — the  place 
of  the  dead — real  persons.  And  the  resurrec- 
tion consists  in  their  rising  out  of  hades  to 
their  ultimate  fullness  of  eternal  life  in  heaven, 
or  of  death  in  Gehenna. 

IV.  The  soul  has  its  own  spiritual  body,  in- 
ter-existent with  the  material  body.  At  death 
the  outer  material  body  is  dissolved,  and  the 
soul  rises  in  its  own  spiritual  body. 

Leaving  you  to  judge  which,  or  whether 
either  of  these  hypotheses  will  agree  with  the 
Word,  I  pass  on  to  inquire  as  to  the  teaching 
of  the  New  Testament — 

I.  Concerning  the  place  or  state  of  the  dead 
next  after  leaving  this  world. 


24  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

II.  Concerning  the  personality  of  the  dead. 

III.  Concerning  whence  the  dead  rise,  or  the 
true  scene  of  the  resurrection,  and  in  what  its 
final  glorious  triumph  will  consist. 

The  varied  forms  of  expression  used  in  refer- 
ence to  the  dead  may  be  comprehended  in 
these  terms:  Death,  grave,  hades,  hell,  and 
heaven  ;  and  I  think  may  be  all  summed  up 
in  the  single  terms  death  and  hades — the 
first  expressive  of  the  physical  dissolution  by 
which  the  dead  pass  from  this  world ;  the 
second  indicating  the  place,  or  state  next  after 
this  world,  and  from  whence  they  rise  in  the 
resurrection. 

Our  first  inquiry  is  concerning  the  place  and 
state  of  the  dead  after  leaving  this  world.  This 
is  a  theme  of  very  great  interest,  and  occupies 
much  of  our  thought.  How  often  we  find  our 
thoughts  seeking  to  pass  the  boundaries  of  the 
beyond,  and  anxiously  inquiring  what  is  to  be 
the  state,  what  the  place  next  after  life  in  this 
world?  And  when  friends  and  loved  ones 
pass  away,  and  are  seen  no  more  in  forms  of 
life  in  this  world,  how  resist  the  inquiry, 
What  is  their  place  and  state?  The  eagerness 
with  which  we  seek  any  thing  which  promises 


THE   RESURRECTION    OF   THE    DEAD.         2$ 

us  information  on  this  subject — that  millions 
should  be  so  attracted  and  interested  in  the 
so-called  revelations  of  modern  spiritualism — 
do  but  prove  how  interesting  is  this  theme 
to  minds  generally ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  in- 
dicates the  importance  of  a  careful  and  Script- 
ural study  of  the  subject.  For  we  may  not  say 
this  is  a  theme  with  which  we  are  to  have  noth- 
ing to  do — so  utterly  left  in  the  dark  that  we 
may  know  nothing  concerning  it.  At  the  same 
time  it  is  a  subject  we  need  to  approach  with 
great  carefulness,  much  humility,  and  entire 
dependence  upon  the  teaching  of  the  Word — 
so  easy  is  it  on  a  subject  like  this  to  supple- 
ment facts  with  dreams,  and  mistake  imagin- 
ations for  Revelation.  Hence  our  inquiry  is 
strictly  confined  to  this :  What  does  the  New 
Testament  teach  concerning  the  place  and 
state  of  life  next  after  this  world  ?  In  refer- 
ence to  this  subject  its  authors  use  various 
terms,  which  in  our  translation  are  heaven, 
paradise,  Abraham's  bosom,  eternal  or  ever- 
lasting life,  indicating  a  place  or  places,  and 
state  of  life  and  happiness.  And  opposite 
these  are  terms — hell,  lake  of  fire,  bottomless 
pit,  prison,  everlasting  punishment,  second 
3 


26  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

death,  etc. — indicating  a  place  or  places,  and 
state  of  death  and  unhappiness.  These  places 
are  generally  comprehended  by  the  single 
terms  heaven  and  hell.  And  the  commonly 
received  idea,  or  perception,  in  the  Christian 
jnind  is,  that  at  the  death  of  the  body  the  soul 
at  once  goes  either  to  heaven  or  hell ;  and,  to 
such  as  have  neither  the  means  nor  inclination 
to  look  beyond  this,  it  may  be  all  sufficient. 
But  the  fact  certainly  is  that  this  idea  does 
not  comprehend  the  teaching  of  the  Word, 
nor  fill  the  perceptions  of  thinking,  inquiring 
minds.  There  is  yet  another  term  used  at 
least  eleven  times  in  the  New  Testament.  It 
is  in  the  Greek  hades.  There  is  also  in  the 
Old  Testament  a  term  which,  in  the  Hebrew, 
is  sheol.  In  the  Septuagint,  or  Greek  trans- 
lation of  the  Hebrew  Bible,  this  word  sheol  is 
always  translated  hades — so  that  the  Hebrew 
sheol  and  the  Greek  hades  are  equivalent  terms, 
and  must  be  equivalent  in  meaning.  What  is 
that  meaning?  That  is,  just  what  did  the 
New  Testament  authors  mean  to  teach  by  the 
word  hades  f  We  may  have  to  linger  about 
this  single  point  of  inquiry  for  some  time,  be- 
cause, in  our  English  translation,  it  certainly 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.    2J 

does  not  appear  what  it  does  mean,  and  some- 
times means  one  thing  and  sometimes  a  very 
different  thing.  In  fact,  in  our  translation,  and 
modern  theology  and  interpretation,  this  very 
important  word  has  been  roughly  handled.  Its 
true  meaning  has  well-nigh  been  lost,  and  with 
it  has  been  lost  to  the  Christian  Church  a  most 
important  doctrine — that  is,  the  doctrine  of  the 
spiritual  world,  or  mediate  state  of  the  dead 
after  death.  Thus  hades  is  sometimes  trans- 
lated grave,  the  place  of  dead  bodies,  and 
sometimes  hell,  the  place  of  punishment  of  lost 
souls — a  palpable  contradiction.  Moreover,  it 
is  well  known  to  scholars  who  have  given  the 
subject  a  thought,  and  I  think  will  appear  even 
to  us,  that  not  in  a  single  case  can  it  mean 
either  grave  or  hell  at  all.  So  the  term  sheol, 
in  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  is  translated  some- 
times grave,  sometimes  hell.  But  it  is  well 
known  that  it  means  neither — that  such  was 
not  its  meaning  in  the  Jewish  mind — but  that 
it  meant  the  "  unseen  world  " — the  "  receptacle 
of  all  spirits  departed."  And  I  think  we  will 
p'ainly  see  that  its  equivalent  term  hades,  in 
the  New  Testament,  means  the  same,  and  that 
such  was  the  meaning  intended  to  be  expressed 


28  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

by  the  New  Testament  authors.  And  to  their 
use  of  the  term  let  us  at  once  direct  our  in- 
quiries. And  first  to  Acts  ii,  27,  31:  "  Be- 
cause thou  wilt  not  leave  my  soul  in  hades ; 
neither  wilt  thou  suffer  thine  Holy  One  to  see 
corruption.  He  seeing  this  before,  spake  of 
the  resurrection  of  Christ,  that  his  soul  was 
not  left  in  hades,  neither  his  flesh  did  see  cor- 
ruption." In  both  these  verses  hades,  in  the 
Greek  text,  is  in  our  English  text  translated 
hell.  Now  the  question  is,  What  was  the 
meaning  of  Peter,  and  of  contemporary  authors, 
in  the  use  of  this  word  ?  What  place  or  state 
is  meant  by  hades  in  these  texts  ?  And  it 
may  assist  us  in  this  inquiry  to  give  a  brief 
exegesis  of  the  context,  and  thus  clearly  see 
of  whom  Peter  is  speaking.  Verses  27,  28, 
are  a  quotation  from  David  in  the  sixteenth 
Psalm.  In  verses  29-34,  it  is  shown  that 
David  did  not  speak  of  himself.  He  was 
buried,  and  his  sepulcher  remained  to  that 
day  in  Jerusalem.  He  was  not  ascended  into 
the  heavens,  and  his  flesh  did  see  corruption. 
In  verses  30,  31,  it  is  shown  that  David  spake 
in  the  spirit  of  prophecy  concerning  Christ — 
that  his  soul   was   not   left   in  hades,  neither 


&**/*$• 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.    29 


did  his  flesh  see  corruption.  Then  manifestly 
the  doctrine  is  concerning  the  resurrection  of 
Christ  that  his  soul  rose  from  hades  and  his  O 
body  from  the  tomb.  The  second  part  of  this 
teaching,  in  verse  31,  we  can  readily  under- 
stand. It  is  that  the  material,  or  earthly  body 
of  Jesus  did  not  see  corruption — though  dead, 
it  was  raised  from  the  tomb  before  decompo- 
sition had  commenced.  What  are  we  to  un- 
derstand by  his  soul  ?  Manifestly  his  immortal, 
human  soul — not  in  the  sense  of  a  breath  of  "^^A 
life,  or  unorganized  psychical  essence,  but  his 
real  substantial  sc/f,  or  personality — the  real 
human  Christ.  ,■:  For  the  body  left  in  the  tomb 
was  not  the  real,  personal  Christ,  any  more 
than  the  shadow  is  the  real  substance,  or  than 
k  your  body  is  your  real,  personal  self.  Yet  we 
have  been  so  long  under  the  teaching  of  the 
old  Platonic,  and  other  metaphysical  philos- 
ophy, of  naked,  disembodied,  soul-immortality, 
of  mere  shades  and  ghosts,  that  it  is  difficult 
for  us  to  perceive  that  a  living  soul  out  of  the 
earthly  body  is  still  a  living,  real,  substantial 
person,  and  that  the  New  Testament  knows 
the  dead  as  persons,  not  as  breaths,  or  unor- 
ganized shapes.     The  soul  of  Christ  was  the 


30  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

real,  personal,  spiritual  Christ,  for  a  time  out 
of  the  earthly  body,  which  was  in  the  tomb. 
Now,  the  question  is,  Where  went  this  soul  of 
Christ  after  the  death  of  the  body,  and  where 
was  it  during  the  days  the  body  remained  in 
the  tomb  ?  David,  in  the  spirit  of  prophecy, 
declared  it  would  not  be  left  in  sheol,  or  hades. 
Peter  declares  as  an  actual  fact  it  was  not  left 
in  hades.  Then  is  it  not  manifest  that  Christ 
did  descend  to  sheol,  or  hades,  and  that  he  was 
there  at  least  for  a  time  ?  Then  where  was 
that  hades  ?  What  place  or  state  of  the  dead 
is  meant  by  the  use  of  this  word  in  this 
connection  ? 

In  the  first  place,  it  was  not  heaven,  as  the 
place  of  angels  and  the  ultimate  abode  of  the 
redeemed.  I.  Because  this  word  is  nowhere  in 
the  Bible  used  with  such  meaning.  It  has  in 
no  case  ever  been  translated  in  any  language 
with  such  meaning,  nor  can  it  be  without  doing 
great  violence  to  the  text.  2.  Christ  himself 
said  to  Mary,  after  his  resurrection,  "I  have 
not  yet  ascended,"  and  Luke  states  as  an  actual 
fact  that  he  did  not  ascend  to  heaven  for  forty 
days  afterward.  But  he  was  in  hades  before  his 
resurrection  ;  therefore  hades  is  not  heaven. 


THE   RESURRECTION    OF    THE    DEAD.        3 1 

II.  It  is  certain  it  does  not  mean  the  grave 
or  the  tomb.  1.  Because  the  term  hades 
never  does  properly  mean  the  grave — is  never 
used  with  such  meaning  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament. True,  it  is  in  one  place  translated 
grave,  but  without  regard  to  the  true  mean- 
ing of  the  text,  as  we  shall  hereafter  see  ;  and 
that  such  is  the  meaning  in  these  texts  surely 
no  one  will  for  a  moment  assume.  2.  Then 
would  we  be  taught  that  the  soul  goes  into 
the  grave,  or  into  the  dust  rather,  with  the 
body;  and  this  would  land  us  at  once  in  bold 
Materialism,  and  blot  out  all  knowledge  or  re- 
liable perception  of  a  spiritual  world  or  place 
of  existence  after  leaving  this  material  world. 

III.  Equally  certain  is  it  that  hades  in 
these  texts  does  not  mean  hell  as  the  place 
of  demons  and  the  ultimate  abode  of  lost 
men.  1.  Because  the  term  in  the  Greek  text 
never  means  hell  in  such  sense.  In  the  Greek 
text  Gehenna  is  the  term  to  translate  hell,  for 
such  is  its  specific  meaning.  In  our  English 
hades  is  sometimes  translated  hell,  but,  as  we 
shall  see,  with  no  more  reference  to  its  true 
meaning  than  when  translated  grave.  2.  It  is 
little  less  than  blasphemy  to  say  the  soul  of 


32  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

the  blessed  Christ  went  to  hell,  the  place 
of  the  finally  lost.  Such  an  idea  is  repulsive 
in  the  extreme,  and  without  foundation  in 
good  sense  or  reason.  Why  should  Christ 
descend  to  hell  ?  Besides,  if  such  is  the 
meaning  of  hades,  if  such  was  the  place  to 
which  Christ  went,  then  is  hell  abolished,  for 
he  did  not  remain  there.  Not  only  so,  but,  as 
we  shall  see  below,  when  he  arose  from  hades 
he  led  a  multitude  of  captives  and  bore  off  the 
keys  of  hell  in  triumph.  Then  has  almighty 
delivering  power  visited  hell,  and  hell  is  in 
fact  abolished.  But  such  interpretation  would 
contradict  the  uniform  teaching  of  the  whole 
New  Testament.  Then  hades  in  these  texts 
does  not  mean  hell.  Then,  if  it  means  nei- 
ther heaven,  the  grave,  nor  hell,  what  does  it 
mean?  If  Christ  at  death  went  neither  to 
heaven,  the  grave,  nor  hell,  where  went  he  ? 
Let  us  for  the  present  assume  what  may  here- 
after be  fully  established,  that  hades  here  must 
be  allowed  its  own  specific,  uniform  meaning, 
the  same  as  its  equivalent  term  sheol  in  the 
Old  Testament — that  is,  the  "unseen  world" 
or  "  great  unseen,"  the  place  of  the  dead,  the 
"  receptacle  of  all  spirits  departed,"  "  the  under 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.    33 

world."  Now,  reduce  these  all  to  a  specific 
meaning  and  it  is  the  spiritual  world  or  abode 
of  the  dead,  the  mediate  state  between  heaven 
and  Geheiina,  from  whence  the  dead  arise  to 
fullness  of  eternal  life  after  tfoe  judgment 
or  sink  to  eternal  death  in  Gehenna.  Now, 
allowing  that  such  is  the  meaning  of  hades 
in  these  texts,  the  whole  teaching  is  plain 
enough  and  consistent.  It  means  that  Christ 
at  his  death  went  where  all  the  dead  before 
him  had  gone,  and  where  they  were.  And 
how  significant  the  fact  that  his  soul  was  not 
left  there !  All  the  dead  going  there  previ- 
ously had  been  left  there.  Hence  to  both 
Jews  and  Gentiles  the  "under  world/'  whether 
known  to  them  as  sheol,  hades,  or  Tartarus, 
was  the  gloomy,  dreaded  prison  of  death.  As 
their  departed  passed  the  portals  of  the  grave 
they  were  heard  of  no  more ;  no  one  had  ever 
returned.  And,  though  the  Jews  had  their 
brighter  conceptions  of  Abraham's  bosom,  or 
a  paradisiacal  state  of  the  pious  dead  in  sheol, 
and  the  Greeks  their  brighter  dreams  of  elys- 
ian  fields  and  apotheosis,  yet  to  all  the  life 
beyond  was  shadowy  and  dark,  and  the  place 
of   the   dead   the   gloomy  under  world.     But 


34  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

the  Christ  remained  not  there.  He  arose 
from  hades  as  the  first-fruits  of  the  dead,  and 
henceforth,  to  all  who  believe  in  him,  it  is  no 
longer  the  gloomy,  dreaded  under  world,  but 
paradise,  quite  on  the  borders  of  heaven,  to 
which  they  rise  as  they  pass  the  judgment 
and  attain  to  the  resurrection.  Thus  viewing 
the  resurrection  of  the  Lord  from  hades,  we 
see  how  tremendous  a  fact  it  was — no  less  a 
miracle  in  the  spiritual  world  than  in  the  nat- 
ural world.  So,  too,  the  glorious  doctrine  of 
the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  of  the  resurrec- 
tion and  the  life  in  Jesus,  becomes  a  fact, 
and  a  truth  of  tremendous  significance  as  we 
come  to  realize  that  it  means  much  more  than 
a  mere  formal  assent  to  doctrinals  about  the 
gathering  again  of  the  dust  of  dead  bodies  at 
the  end  of  the  world. 

Our  next  step,  of  course,  will  be  to  see  how 
this  interpretation  of  hades  will  agree  with  its 
obvious  meaning  in  other  texts,  and  with  the 
general  teaching  of  the  New  Testament ;  for,  if 
it  contradicts  the  obvious  meaning  of  a  single 
text  or  the  general  teaching  of  the  Word,  it  must 
be  mistaken,  and  we  may  not  safely  adopt  it. 
Let  us  take  next  the  passage  in  Rev.  i,  17,  18 : 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.    35 

"  I  am  the  first  and  the  last ;  I  am  he  that 
liveth  and  was  dead,  and  behold,  I  am  alive 
for  evermore,  Amen  ;  and  have  the  keys  of 
hades  and  of  death."  In  our  translation  hades 
is  rendered  hell.  But  cm  the  supposition  that 
it  means  hell,  as  Gehenna,  the  place  of  the 
finally  lost,  it  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  see  just 
what  is  the  obvious  meaning  of  the  text.  What 
can  be  the  meaning  of  the  saying,  "  I  have  the 
keys  of  hell!'  unless  it  be  that  Jesus  pro- 
claims himself  as  the  custodian  of  hell,  receiv- 
ing lost  spirits  and  locking  them  up  there  ; 
or  does  it  mean  that  he  has  conquered  hell's 
kingdom  and  borne  off  the  key  ?  Such  meaning 
is  openly  repugnant  to  every  idea  of  this  text 
and  of  the  general  teaching  of  the  Word.  Then 
if  hades  here  means  lull  as  the  place  and  state 
of  the  finally  lost,  what  is  the  obvious  meaning 
and  teaching  of  this  text  ?  Who  can  tell  ? 
But  allow  the  term  its  own  true  meaning,  the 
whole  teaching  of  the  text  is  obvious.  Thus, 
Jesus  proclaims  himself  the  first  and  the  last, 
the  Jehovah  of  eternity,  manifested  in  human- 
ity. He  was  dead,  in  that  his  body  was  cru- 
cified and  laid  in  the  tomb,  and  his  soul 
descended  to  the  place  of  the  dead.     He  is 


36  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

alive,  in  that  his  soul  was  not  left  in  hades,  the 
place  of  the  dead,  but  "  ascended,"  Eph.  iv,  7, 
10  ;  and  raised  his  body  from  the  tomb.  He 
is  alive  for  evermore,  in  that  death  can  have 
no  more  power  over  him,  either  body  or  soul. 
In  rising  from  hades  he  bore  off  the  keys  and 
left  its  gates  open  evermore.  The  idea  is  that 
of  a  conqueror  entering  a  strong  and  well-bolted 
fortification,  its  every  gate  locked  ;  such  was 
hades  when  under  the  dominion  of  death,  and 
to  all  who  entered  there  before  Jesus  descended. 
But  he  left  its  portals  ajar  and  bore  off  the 
keys  ;  not  only  so,  but  he  has  in  like  manner 
conquered  death  and  hades  for  all  who  are  in 
him.  They  fear  neither  the  death  of  the  body 
nor  hades,  the  abode  of  the  dead  in  the  spirit- 
ual world.  Thus,  not  only  is  the  meaning  of 
this  text  obvious,  beautiful,  all-glorious,  but  also, 
how  perfectly  it  harmonizes  with  the  teachings 
of  David  and  Pe$er  already  considered  ! 

Again,  we  find  the  term  hades  in  the  follow- 
ing texts  from  Rev.  xx,  12-15:  "And  I  saw 
the  dead,  small  and  great,  stand  before  God  ; 
and  the  books  were  opened  :  and  another  book 
was  opened,  which  is  the  book  of  life :  and  the 
dead  were  judged  out  of  those  things  which 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.    37 

were  written  in  the  books,  according  to  their 
works.  And  the  sea  gave  up  the  dead  which 
were  in  it ;  and  death  and  hell  delivered  up  tfie 
dead  which  were  in  them :  and  they  were 
judged  every  man  according  to  their  works. 
And  death  and  hell  were  cast  into  the  lake  of 
fire.  This  is  the  second  death.  And  whoso- 
ever was  not  found  written  in  the  book  of  life 
was  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire." 

Now,  allowing  hades  in  these  verses  to  mean 
hell  as  the  ultimate  abode  of  the  lost  in  the 
English  translation,  the  meaning  of  the.  texts 
is  not  obvious  at  all.  It  is  exceedingly  ob- 
scure and  even  contradictory.  What  can  be 
meant  by  the  saying,  "  Death  and  hell  deliv- 
ered up  the  dead  which  were  in  them  ?"  Can 
it  mean  that  hell  is  eventually  to  be  abolished  ? 
compelled  to  deliver  up  the  dead  lost  in  its 
abodes  of  despair  ?  or  does  it  mean  that  they 
are  only  to  be  given  up  for  a  time  to  be  judged, 
and  then  sent  back  again  ?  That  is  to  say,  the 
lost  who  have  been  in  hell  for  centuries  and 
ages,  are  to  be  brought  out  to  judgment ;  that 
is,  to  determine  whether  works  during  their 
life  in  this  world  were  such  as  to  justly  con- 
demn them  and  send  them  to  hell.     That  is  as 


38  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

though  a  civil  court  should  condemn  a  man  to 
the  penitentiary,  and  after  he  had  been  there 
thirty  or  fifty  years,  have  him  brought  out  for 
trial  to  determine  whether  he  ought  justly  to 
be  there  at  all !  Surely  there  can  be  no  such 
transactions  as  that  in  connection  with  the 
final  judgment  of  men.  And  yet,  what  else 
can  be  meant  by  hell  delivering  up  the  dead  ? 
And  that  other  saying,  "  Death  and  hell  were 
cast  into ,  the  lake  of  fire :"  what  can  that 
mean  f  Lake  of  fire  we  know  very  well  is 
equivalent  to  Gehenna,  the  ultimate  hell  or 
place  of  the  finally  lost.  Now  if  hades  also 
means  hell  in  the  same  sense,  then  verse  14 
must  teach  that  hell  is  to  be  cast  into  hell,  the 
meaning  of  which  is  not  very  obvious. 

Now  allow  to  hades  its  true  meaning,  the 
place  of  the  dead  ;  the  place  and  state  of  all 
the  dead  intermediate  between  death  and  the 
judgment.  Then  the  meaning  is  obvious  that 
all  the  dead  come  forth,  or  are  delivered  up, 
from  this  hades  to  be  judged  according  to 
their  works,  that  their  ultimate  state  and  des- 
tiny in  heaven  or  in  Gehenna  may  be  justly 
determined.  The  meaning  of  the  fourteenth 
verse  may  be  that  all  in  hades  who  are  under 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.    39 

death  or  in  the  lost  state,  will,  after  judgment, 
be  cast  into  hell,  Gehenna,  or  more  likely  it 
may  teach  that  hades  itself,  as  an  intermediate 
world,  will  cease  ;  and  all  that  pertains  to 
death  or  death's  dominions,  either  in  this  world 
or  the  spiritual,  either  as  affects  body  or  soul, 
will  be  abolished  forever.  At  any  rate  it  must 
be  obvious  to  any  one  that  hades  in  these 
verses  can  not  mean  hell. 

Once  more  we  find  the  term  hades  in  I  Cor. 
xv,  55  :  "  O  death,  where  is  thy  sting  ?  O  hades, 
where  is  thy  victory  ?"  In  this  verse  the 
Greek  is  translated  grave.  But  as  this  text 
will  claim  full  and  careful  consideration  when 
we  come  to  inquire  as  to  the  true  scene  of  the 
resurrection,  or  whence  the  dead  rise,  we  will 
pass  it  here  with  the  statement  that  the  word 
in  this  text  can  no  more  mean  grave  here  than 
it  does  hell  in  the  other  texts. 

There  is  but  one  other  text  in  which  this 
term  occurs  which  demands  extended  exami- 
nation in  this  general  inquiry  ;  it  is  in  connec- 
tion with  the  parable  of  the  rich  man  and  Laz- 
arus. But  I  wish  to  make  the  examination  of 
this  parable  the  closing  feature  of  this  im- 
portant part  of  our  inquiry.     I  will  next  call 


40  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

attention  to  certain  other  texts  in  which  oc- 
cur terms  that  in  the  New  Testament  are  evi- 
dently equivalent  to  or  cognates  of  this  word 
hades,  and  obviously  with  the  same  meaning. 
They  are  the  terms  "  paradise,"  "  Abraham's 
bosom,"  "  lower  parts  of  the  earth,"  "  under 
the  earth,"  the  "  prison,"  and  the  "  deep,"  or 
"abyss."  These  terms  occur  in  passages 
which,  according  to  our  English  translation 
and  accepted  expositions,  are  very  obscure  of 
meaning. 

Let  us  look  at  some  of  these :  Eph.  iv,  8-10 : 
"  Wherefore  he  saith,  when  he  ascended  up  on 
high,  he  led  captivity  captive,  and  gave  gifts 
unto  men.  Now  that  he  ascended,  what  is  it 
but  that  he  also  descended  first  into  the  lower 
parts  of  the  earth  ?  He  that  descended  is  the 
same  also  that  ascended  up  far  above  all  heav- 
ens, that  he  might  fill  all  things."  This,  as  it 
thus  stands  in  our  English  translation,  is  con- 
fessedly a  very  difficult  passage.  Its  meaning 
is  not  obvious.  Hence  the  multiplicity  of  in- 
terpretations scholars  have  given  it.  But  with 
these  we  have  nothing  to  do ;  we  will  simply 
assume  that  the  phrase  "lower  parts  of  the 
earth,"  is  equivalent  to  hades,  and  precisely 


THE    RESURRECTION    OF    THE    DEAD.        41 

the  same  in  meaning ;  that  is,  the  "  under 
world  "  or  "  place  of  the  dead."  And  in  this 
assumption  we  are  sustained  by  many  of  the 
best  scholars,  who  admit  that  in  the  parallel 
texts  of  the  Hebrew  in  Psalm  lxiii,  10,  and 
Ezek.  xxvi,  20,  the  equivalent  term  is  sheol ;  so 
of  course  the  equivalent  term  in  the  Greek 
would  be  hades.  But  it  is  for  us  to  see  what 
is  the  obvious  meaning  of  the  passage  when 
we  read  it  thus :  Now  that  he  ascended,  what 
is  it  but  that  he  descended  first  into  hades  ? 
Thus  understood,  it  is  plain,  1.  That  Paul  cor- 
roborates the  statement  of  Peter,  Matthew, 
Mark,  Luke,  and  John,  that  Jesus  rose  from  the 
dead  and  ascended  into  the  heavens.  2.  Also, 
the  statement  of  Peter,  Acts  ii,  31,  that  before 
he  thus  ascended  he  descended  into  hades  ; 
also  the  statement  of  Peter  that  his  soul  was 
not  left  in  hades,  but  the  same  Christ  who 
thus  descended  did  also  ascend.  3.  We  have 
the  additional  statement  that  as  Jesus  thus 
ascended  from  hades  he  led  a  "multitude  of 
captives,"  verse  8 — no  doubt  those  of  the 
Patriarchal  and  Jewish  Church  who  had  re- 
mained under  the  dominion  of  death  in  hades 
until  the  descent  and  resurrection  of  Christ. 
4 


42  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

Then  in  the  tenth  verse  we  have  the  glorious 
antithesis  of  the  death  and  resurrection  of 
Jesus,  in  the  full  depth  and  hight  of  their  sig- 
nificance. He  (Jesus)  that  descended  down 
to  the  lower  world,  or  hades,  to  the  dead  who 
had  gone  before  him-^who  was  thus  for  a  time 
in  the  depths  of  death's  dominion — is  the  same 
(Jesus)  also  that  ascended  up  far  above  all 
heavens,  that  he  might  be  the  fullness  of  all 
things.  How  wonderfully  does  this  harmonize 
with  that  glorious  saying  of  Jesus,  "  I  am  the 
First  and  the  Last.  I  am  he  that  liveth  and 
was  dead,  and  behold,  I  am  alive  for  evermore, 
and  have  the  keys  of  death  and  hades !"  Now, 
thus  rendered,  is  not  the  meaning  of  this  diffi- 
cult passage  obvious  enough  and  perfectly  in 
harmony  with  the  New  Testament  doctrine  of 
hades  in  all  the  other  texts  we  have  examined  ? 
Next  come  in  order  those  texts  in  which  oc- 
cur the  phrase  "  under  the  earth :"  "  Where- 
fore God  also  hath  highly  exalted  him,  and 
given  him  a  name  which  is  above  every  name : 
that  at  the  name  of  Jesus  every  knee  should 
bow,  of  things  in  heaven,  and  things  in  earth, 
and  things  under  the  earth  ;  and  that  every 
tongue  should   confess   that  Jesus    Christ   is 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   43 

Lord,  to  the  glory  of  God  the  Father."  Phil, 
ii,  9-1 1.  Now  as  this  passage  reads  it  is  not 
obvious  just  what  is  meant  by  things  "  under 
the  earth,"  But  when  we  allow  "  under  the 
earth  "  to  be  the  same  as  "  lower  parts  of  the 
earth"  and  equivalent  to  hades,  then  the  mean- 
ing is  just  the  same  as  the  text  last  considered. 
The  "  highly  exalted,"  the  "  name  that  is  above 
every  name,"  verse  9,  is  the  same  as  the  "as- 
cended up  far  above  all  heavens"  or  the  "  I  am 
the  first  and  the  last."  Then  verse  10  pro- 
claims the  absolute  and  universal  sovereignty 
of  Jesus  over  all  existent  things  in  all  the 
heavens,  in  this  earth,  in  hades,  or  the  invisible 
world  of  the  dead. 

Again,  Rev.  v,  3  :  "And  no  man  in  heaven, 
nor  in  earth,  neither  under  the  earth,  was  able 
to  open  the  book,  neither  to  look  thereon." 
And  verse  13:  "And  every  creature  which  is 
in  heaven  and  on  the  earth,  and  under  the 
earth,  and  such  as  are  in  the  sea,  .  .  . 
heard,  saying,  Blessing,  and  honor,  and  glory 
.  .  .  unto  the  Lamb  forever  and  ever." 
Allowing  "  under  the  earth  "  the  same  mean- 
ing— hades — and  the  meaning  of  these  verses 
is  obvious   enough,  and   entirely  harmonious 


44  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

with  all  the  texts  previously  considered.  The 
third  verse  teaches  that  the  future  history  or 
development  of  Christ's  kingdom  in  this  world 
was  a  sealed  book  to  all  the  inhabitants  of  the 
angelic  world  of  this  earth,  and  of  the  mediate 
world  of  the  dead.  The  thirteenth  is  a  pro- 
phetic vision  of  Phil,  ii,  10 — the  absolute 
sovereignty  of  Jesus  acknowledged  by  every 
living  being  in  heaven,  in  earth,  and  in  the 
mediate  world. 

One  other  passage  will  claim  our  close  and 
somewhat  extended  attention.  It  is  that  text 
in  i  Peter  iii,  18-20,  which  has  caused  com- 
mentators so  much  trouble :  "  For  Christ  also 
hath  once  suffered  for  sins,  the  just  for  the 
unjust,  that  he  might  bring  us  to  God  ;  being 
put  to  death  in  the  flesh,  but  quickened  by  the 
Spirit.  By  which  also  he  went  and  preached 
unto  the  spirits  in  prison ;  which  sometime 
were  disobedient,  when  once  the  long-suffering 
of  God  waited  in  the  days  of  Noah,  while  the 
ark  was  a  preparing,  wherein  few,  that  is,  eight 
souls,  were  saved  by  water."  It  is  no  part  of 
our  task  to  notice,  much  less  controvert,  any 
interpretations  or  creeds.  But  the  commonly 
received    interpretation    of   these   verses,    by 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.    45 

which  they  are  made  to  teach  that  Christ — 
long  before  he,  as  Jehovah,  had  become  the 
Christ  at  all— went  and  preached  to  the  sin- 
ners of  the  antediluvian  world  through  the 
ministry  of  Noah,  is  so  arbitrary — such  a  rare 
specimen  of  theological  dogmatism — that  we 
can  not  afford  to  pass  it  unnoticed.  It  is 
simply  a  complete  perversion  of  the  text,  which 
completely  empties  the  passage  of  its  true 
meaning,  and  fills  it  with  a  meaning  which  is 
not  expressed  in  the  text  at  all.  Not  a  word 
is  said  about  Noah,  Christ,  or  any  body  else, 
preaching  in  the  days  of  Noah.  It  simply 
says  the  spirits  to  whom  Christ  preached  were 
sometime  disobedient,  when  the  long-suffering 
of  God  waited  in  the  days  of  Noah.  For  a 
masterly  refutation  of  this  most  bungling  exe- 
gesis see  Lange's  new  Commentary,  which 
also  contains  the  best  exegesis  of  this  difficult 
passage  to  be  found  in  any  commentary.  Now, 
of  course  the  key  to  this  whole  passage  is  the 
word  prison  (<pulaxri).  What  was  the  meaning 
in  the  mind  of  Peter,  and  to  what  place,  to 
what  spirits  did  he  refer  in  the  use  of  the  word 
here?  Let  us  assume  that  the  word  trans- 
lated prison  is  equivalent  to  hades t  or  at  least 


46  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

a  region  or  place  of  some  of  the  dead  in  hades. 
Then  the  passage  would  read  thus :  Because 
Christ  also  suffered  for  sins  once — a  just  per- 
son on  behalf  of  unjust,  in  order  that  he  might 
present  us  to  God — put  to  death,  indeed,  in 
the  flesh,  but  made  alive  in  the  spirit;  in 
which,  also,  he  went  and  preached  to  the  spir- 
its in  prison,  which  were  disobedient  formerly, 
when  the  long-suffering  of  God  was  waiting  in 
the  days  of.  Noah,  while  the  ark  was  prepar- 
ing.* Thus  understood,  Peter  expresses  pre- 
cisely the  same  idea,  or  glorious  fact,  that  he 
does  in  Acts  ii,  31 — that  is,  that  immediately 
after  his  crucifixion  death  in  the  flesh,  Christ, 
in  soul  or  spirit,  descended  into  the  place  of 
the  dead.  There  are  variations  of  statement, 
it  is  true,  but  these  only  bring  out  the  great 
fact  with  greater  clearness.  Thus  in  Acts  it 
is  not  explicitly  stated  that  Jesus  did  descend 
into  hades,  but  that  his  soul  was  not  left  there. 
But  here  Peter  states  explicitly  that  after  his 
crucifixion,  or  when  put  to  death  in  the  flesh, 
he  was  made  alive  in  the  spirit,  and  went 
to  the  souls  in  prison.  And  this,  too,  har- 
monizes perfectly  with  Paul's  statement  that 

*See  Lange. 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.    47 

"he   descended   into   the  lower   parts  of  the 
earth." 

Another  variation  is  in  the  terms  Iiades,  in 
Acts,  and  prison  in  this  text.  These  are  not, 
of  course,  equivalent  terms.  The  first  is  the 
place  of  the  dead  in  general ;  the  latter  is 
some  particular,  or  limited  locality,  or  state 
of  some  of  the  dead  in  Jiadcs.  Thus  in  Acts 
the  descent  to  hades  is  stated  in  general.  Here 
it  is  said  he  went  to  a  certain  locality,  or  state 
of  the  dead,  to  a  certain  class  of  the  dead — 
that  is,  to  the  prison,  and  to  the  spirits  there, 
who  had  been  disobedient  in  the  days  of  Noah. 
That  is  as  if  you  should  say  of  a  certain  person 
at  one  time  that  he  had  gone  to  England  ;  and 
at  another  time  should  say  he  had  gone  to 
visit  the  prisoners  in  the  Tower  of  London. 
Thus  the  prison  is  not  hades,  as  paradise  is 
not  heaven.  Neither  is  it  a  place  entirely  dis- 
tinct and  other  wheres  than  hades f  but  a  place 
or  state  of  certain  of  the  dead  in  hades.  Again, 
in  Acts,  it  is  not  stated  for  what  purpose  Jesus 
went  to  the  dead,  or  why  he  was  in  hades. 
Here  it  is  taught  he  went  and  preached,  "  her- 
aided  deliverance"  to  the  spirits  in  prison. 
And  in  this  statement  is  a  fact  from  which  we 


48  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

shrink,  looking  at  it  through  the  light  which 
our  theologies  throw  upon  the  future  destiny 
of  the  dead.  And  here,  too,  the  reason  why- 
theologians  have  refused  to  the  word  prison  its 
true  meaning  and  locality,  and  have  insisted 
on  locating  it  away  over  somewhere  about  the 
Ark  of  Noah,  and  really  make  it  mean  noth- 
ing, and  nowhere.  Of  course  with  this  teach- 
ing of  this  portion  of  this  passage  we  need 
have  nothing  to  do.  We  are  not  writing  a 
Commentary,  but  searching  after  the  New  Tes- 
tament teaching  concerning  the  place  of  the 
dead.  We  have  to  do  with  the  word  prison ; 
and  we  see  that  by  allowing  it  to  mean  a  place, 
or  state  of  the  dead  in  hades,  the  meaning  of 
this  whole  passage  is  obvious  enough,  and 
does  truly  harmonize  with  all  the  other  texts 
we  have  gone  over.  Concerning  this  state- 
ment of  Christ's  preaching  to  the  spirits  in 
prison  I  will  make  this  remark:  that  Peter 
means  by  it  just  what  he  says — that  when  Jesus 
was  in  hades  he  did  proclaim  deliverance  to  cer- 
tain of  the  dead  who  were  in  the  place  or  state 
of  the  prison.  And  if  we  can  not  understand 
what  this  means  we  would  better  wait  until 
we  can.     And  if  we  can  not  harmonize  it  with 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.    49 

our  theological  notions  about  the  future  destiny 
of  the  dead,  let  us  consider  whether  the  Spirit 
of  God  wants  any  such  harmony,  or  ever  de- 
signed it.  Any  thing  is  better  than  to  make 
God's  Word  teach  nonsense  to  harmonize  it 
with  our  private  interpretations  and  dogmatic 
platitudes. 

We  may  next  give  attention  to  certain 
texts  in  which  terms  are  used  with  seeming 
contrariety  of  meaning.  Thus,  Luke,  in  his 
Gospel,  chapter  xxiii,  43,  states  that  Jesus  said 
to  one  of  the  malefactors,  "  To-day  shalt  thou 
be  with  me  in  paradise!'  Peter  says,  Acts 
ii,  31,  that  "his  soul  was  not  left  in  hacles,,, 
thus  indirectly  saying  that  he  went  to  hades. 
Again,  in  his  first  epistle,  chapter  iii,  18,  he 
says  he  went  to  preach  "  to  the  spirits  in 
prison,"  while  Paul  says  "  he  descended  into 
the  lower  parts  of  the  earth."  Now,  here  are 
at  least  very  apparent  difficulties,  and,  as  the 
texts  stand  in  our  English  translation,  where 
hades  is  made  to  mean  hell  there  are  palpable 
contradictions.  Thus,  it  is  stated  that  Jesus, 
after  his  crucifixion,  went  to  paradise,  that  he 
was  in  hell,  that  he  appeared  among  spirits  in 
prison,  and  that  he  descended  somewhere  into 


50  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

the  bowels  of  the  earth.  But  these  difficulties 
vanish  when  we  allow  hades  and  lower  parts 
of  the  earth  to  mean  one  and  the  same  place, 
the  place  and  state  of  the  dead  in  general. 
Then  paradise,  or  Abraham's  bosom,  its  equiv- 
alent, stands  for  the  heavenly  state  in  hades, 
the  place  and  state  of  the  righteous,  the  dead 
in  Christ,  those  who  sleep  in  Jesus.  It  is,  so 
to  speak,  the  heavenward  side  of  hades,  and 
from  whence  the  redeemed  rise  to  celestial 
paradise — 2  Cor.  xii,  4;  Rev.  ii,  7 — after  judg- 
ment, and  as  they  attain  to  the  fullness  of 
eternal  life.  Then  the  prison,  the  abyss  or 
"bottomless  pit,"  and  equivalent  terms  stand 
for  the  opposite  place  and  state,  the  hellward 
side,  so  to  speak,  of  hades,  the  abodes  and 
states  of  the  ungodly,  the  impenitent,  and 
from  whence  they  descend  after  judgment  to 
Gehenna,  the  hell  or  lake  of  fire,  the  second 
death. 

Thus  understood,  the  use  of  these  terms, 
even  in  our  English  translation,  makes  no 
difficulty  in  our  perception  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament teaching  of  Christ's  descent  into  the 
place  of  the  dead.  We  can  see  how  he  could 
at  the  same  time,  the  same  day,  be  in  hades 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.    SI 

and  with  the  penitent  thief  in  paradise  or  with 
Lazarus  in  Abraham's  bosom ;  and,  also,  we 
can  see  how,  during  his  abode  in  the  unseen 
world,  he  could  go  and  preach  to  the  spirits 
in  prison.  The  only  difficulty  is  the  state- 
ment of  this  last  fact  that  he  did  so  preach 
to  spirits  in  the  other  world.  That  is  so 
shocking  to  all  our  theological  ideas  of  the 
future  destiny  of  souls,  that  we  would  rather 
throw  a  cloud  of  obscure,  far-fetched,  dog- 
matic interpretation  over  all  these  Scriptures 
than  admit  this  fact.  But  we  may  yet  learn 
that  there  are  a  great  many  more  blessed 
facts  in  the  manifestations  of  the  mercy  and 
love  of  Jesus  toward  a  redeemed  race  than 
are  dreamed  of  in  all  our  theologies. 

Now,  I  know  not  how  it  appears  to  the 
reader,  but  to  my  mind  the  explicit  and  har- 
monious teaching  of  the  Scriptures  we  have 
considered  concerning  the  place  of  the  dead 
is  even  wonderful.  There  is  no  doubt  on  my 
mind.  But  there  is  yet  one  other  Scripture 
to  which  I  must  call  your  attention.  It  is  the 
parable  of  the  rich  man  and  Lazarus,  Luke 
xvi,  19-31:  "There  was  a  certain  rich  man, 
which  was  clothed   in  purple  and  fine  linen 


52  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

and  fared  sumptuously  every  day:  and  there 
was  a  certain  beggar  named  Lazarus,  which 
was  laid  at  his  gate,  full  of  sores,  and  desiring 
to  be  fed  with  the  crumbs  which  fell  from  the 
rich  man's  table:  moreover,  the  dogs  came 
and  licked  his  sores.  And  it  came  to  pass, 
that  the  beggar  died,  and  was  carried  by 
the  angels  into  Abraham's  bosom.  The  rich 
man  also  died,  and  was  buried :  and  in  hell 
he  lifted  up  his  eyes,  being  in  torments,  and 
seeth  Abraham  afar  off,  and  Lazarus  in  his 
bosom.  And  he  cried,  and  said,  Father  Abra- 
ham, have  mercy  on  me,  and  send  Lazarus, 
that  he  may  dip  the  tip  of  his  finger  in  water, 
and  cool  my  tongue :  for  I  am  tormented  in 
this  flame.  But  Abraham  said,  Son,  remem- 
ber that  thou  in  thy  life-time  receivedst  thy 
good  things,  and  likewise  Lazarus  evil  things : 
but  now  he  is  comforted,  and  thou  art  tor- 
mented. And  besides  all  this,  between  us  and 
you  there  is  a  great  gulf  fixed :  so  that  they 
which  would  pass  from  hence  to  you,  can  not ; 
neither  can  they  pass  to  us,  that  would  come 
from  thence.  Then  he  said,  I  pray  thee  there- 
fore, father,  that  thou  wouldest  send  him  to 
my  father's  house :  for  I  have  five  brethren ; 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.    53 

that  he  may  testify  unto  them,  lest  they  also 
come  into  this  place  of  torment.  Abraham 
saith  unto  him,  They  have  Moses  and  the 
prophets  ;  let  them  hear  them.  And  he  said, 
Nay,  father  Abraham :  but  if  one  went  unto 
them  from  the  dead,  they  will  repent.  And 
he  said  unto  him,  If  they  hear  not  Moses  and 
the  prophets,  neither  will  they  be  persuaded, 
though  one  rose  from  the  dead." 

In  this  parable  we  have  the  whole  doctrine 
of  the  place  and  states  of  the  dead  photo- 
graphed in  a  single  picture  by  the  Master 
Artist.  In  the  truly  wonderful  disclosures 
of  this  parable  Jesus  lifts  the  curtain  which 
hides  the  beyond  from  the  present,  and  gives 
a  most  comprehensive  view  of  the  spiritual 
world,  the  world  next  to  this  in  which  we 
now  live ;  and,  from  what  we  have  already 
learned  from  other  texts,  we  have  the  key 
to  this  parable.  In  Lazarus,  the  beggar  in 
Abraham's  bosom,  we  see  one  of  the  dead  in 
Christ  in  paradise,  on  the  heavenward  side  of 
hades,  the  heavenly  state  of  the  blessed  dead. 
In  the  rich  man  in  torments  of  flame — not 
of  literal  fire  flames  without  him,  but  of  lust 
flames  within  him — we  see  one  of  the  dead 


54  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

out  of  Christ,  one  of  the  lost  on  the  hellward 
side  of  hades,  the  abyss,  quite  on  the  verge 
of  Gehenna,  the  second  death.  And  these  are 
divided  by  the  great  gulf  or  chasm — not  a  lit- 
eral cleft  or  chasm,  but  the  wide  difference 
between  the  moral  and  spiritual  character  and 
state  of  the  righteous  and  unrighteous  in  the 
spiritual  world.  Thus  we  see  the  same  gen- 
eral states  of  human  life  in  the  world  beyond 
that  we  see  in  this  ;  but  on  the  one  side  it  is 
lifted  much  nearer  heaven,  and  on  the  other 
sunk  much  nearer  hell,  so  that  paradise  in 
sheol  must  be  a  state  of  blessedness  unspeak- 
ably more  heavenly  than  any  state  of  life  in 
this  world,  and  the  abyss,  or  state  of  flame 
torments,  unspeakably  more  wretched  than 
the  lowest  abyss  to  which  human  life  sinks 
in  this  world.  Moreover,  the  moral  and  spir- 
itual separation  or  gulf  is  vastly  wider,  so  that 
with  the  good  there  is  less  of  evil,  and  with 
the  evil  less  of  good.  So  little  the  affinity 
and  so  wide  the  moral  separation  between  the 
good  and  the  evil  that  even  missions  of  mercy 
that  might  be  done  here  can  not  there.  But 
our  task  is  not  an  exposition  of  this  para- 
ble, but  in  a  suggestive  way  to  call  attention 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.    55 

to   the  -wonderful    light   it   throws    upon    the 
place  and  state  of  the  dead. 

And  just  here  I  will  close  this  directly 
Scriptural  inquiry.  There  are  a  few  other 
Scriptures  which  might  be  considered  with 
profit  in  this  connection,  but  they  are  compar- 
atively unimportant.  As  the  results  of  the 
above  inquiry,  the  following  truths  and  facts 
are  clear  to  my  mind:  1.  That  heaven,  as  the 
celestial  paradise,  or  final  state  of  blessedness 
and  eternal  life ;  or  hell,  as  Gehenna,  the  state 
of  the  finally  lost — is  not  the  place  or  state  of 
the  dead  next  after  they  pass  from  this  world. 
2.  That  the  Hebrew  sheol  and  Greek  hades, 
with  their  equivalent  and  cognate  terms,  do 
not,  and  can  not  mean  anywhere  in  the  Script- 
ures either  the  grave  or  hell,  as  the  place 
of  the  finally  lost,  nor  heaven.  3.  That  the 
uniform  and  obvious  meaning  of  hades  and  its 
cognates,  as  used  by  New  Testament  authors, 
is  the  "  unseen  spiritual  world,"  the  place  and 
state  of  the  dead  in  general  after  they  leave 
this  world.  4.  That  to  the  dead  in  Christ 
hades  is  the  paradisiacal  state,  mediate  between 
life  in  this  world  and  the  judgment  and  resur- 
rection, and  from  whence  they  rise  to  heaven 


56  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

as  they  attain  to  the  resurrection  or  fullness 
of  spiritual  life  in  Christ  Jesus.  5.  That  to 
the  ungodly  or  impenitent  the  state  in  hades 
is  that  indicated  by  the  abyss  or  prison,  and 
torments  of  flame.  It  is  the  opposite  of  para- 
dise ;  it  is  the  mediate  state  between  the  life 
of  sin  and  evil  in  this  world  and  the  final  Ge- 
henna, lake  of  fire,  or  second  death  to  which 
they  sink  after  the  judgment.  So  that  we  may 
say,  in  brief,  that  the  place  of  the  dead  in  gen- 
eral next  after  they  leave  this  world  is  clearly 
and  obviously  indicated  by  New  Testament 
authors,  by  the  word  hades  and  its  cognate  and 
equivalent  terms.  And  this  conclusion  we 
reach,  I  can  safely  say,  without  any  arbitrary, 
far-fetched,  or  unnatural  interpretation  of  the 
Scriptures.  Nay  more.  I  may  say  we  have 
taken  some  passages  from  the  rack  of  dog- 
matic exegesis,  where  their  true  meaning  has 
been  wrenched  out  of  them,  and  have  filled 
them  with  their  own  obvious  meaning  by  sim- 
ply allowing  the  term  hades  and  its  cognates 
their  own  true  meaning.  And  this  we  have 
done,  not  in  a  dogmatical  or  theological  way, 
but  simply  in  the  spirit  of  suggestive  inquiry. 
And  is  there  any  other  safe  way  to  expound 


the;  resurrection  of  the  dead. 


57 


the  Word  of  God?  Ought  any  one  ever  to 
come  to  it  in  any  other  spirit  than  in  entire 
dependence  upon  the  Spirit  of  God  which 
wrote  the  Word,  and  which  alone  can  interpret 
the  Word  to  any  mind  ? 


CHAPTER  III. 


HADES  CONTINUED — TEACHINGS  OF  SCHOLARS — OF  PHILOS- 
OPHY AND  HISTORY. 


AFTER  the  extended  Scriptural  inquiry  of 
the  last  chapter,  we  might  rest  the  con- 
clusions reached  concerning  the  place  of  the 
dead,  on  their  purely  Scriptural  basis.  But 
this  is  a  question  of  very  great  interest  and 
importance  to  the  Christian  mind,  especially 
at  this  time.  And  as  we  make  no  pretensions 
to  learning  or  scholarship  whatever,  it  may  be 
well  to  see  what  scholars  say  of  this  matter ; 
not  that  scholars  are  really  any  better  fitted 
simply  by  their  learning  to  interpret  God's 
Word.  They  may  even  thereby  be  less  so,  for 
the  real  spiritual  things  of  the  Word  are  often- 
times hid  from  the  wise  and  prudent  and 
revealed  unto  babes.  But  we  know  how  cus- 
tomary it  is  in  all  such  things  to  depend  upon 
58 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.    59 

and  be  governed  in  our  opinions  by  the  say- 
ings of  the  learned,  so  that  many  might  not 
listen  to  the  teachings  of  the  New  Testament 
on  this  subject  as  allowed  to  speak  in  our  hum- 
ble inquiries  until  they  hear  what  the  Doctors 
say!  and  possibly,  but  too  many  will  wait  to 
inquire  what  do  our  Doctors  say  ? 

Mr.  Olshausen,  in  his  commentary  on  the 
parable  of  the  rich  man  and  Lazarus,  says  of 
hell  or  hades,  "  the  dwelling-place  of  souls 
when  unclothed  from  the  body,  is  termed  in 
the  Scriptures  hades — sJicol ;n  and  with  special 
reference  to  the  sinful  individuals  who  are 
found  in  this  place,  "abyss,  hell,  ox  prison" 
while  with  reference  to  the  pious  it  is  styled 
"  Abraham's  bosom  —  paradise."  Although 
separated  from  each,  yet  all  souls  while  waiting 
the  resurrection,  are  assembled  in  this  place, 
only  in  a  different  state  of  felt  joy  or  suffering 
according  as  they  have  devoted  themselves  to 
good  or  evil,  and  in  different  gradations  of  feel- 
ing according  to  the  degree  of  their  spiritual 
development. 

Dr.  Trench,  in  his  notes  on  the  same  para- 
ble (p.  379)  says,  "  in  hell*'  or  in  hades  rather, 
for  as  Abraham's  bosom  is  not  heaven,  though 


CO  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

it  will  issue  in  heaven,  so  neither  is  hades  hell, 
though  it  will  issue  in  it  when  death  and  hades 
shall  be  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire  which  is  the 
second  death,  or  proper  hell.    Rev.  xx,  14. 

Dr.  Krapp,  in  his  theology  (Vol.  II,  p.  604) 
says,  "  This  place  was  denominated  by  the  He- 
brews, sheol — by  the  Greeks,  hades,  the  word 
by  which  the  LXX  always  translate  sheol. 
Neither  of  these  is  used  in  the  Scripture  to  sig- 
nify exactly  the  grave,  still  less,  the  place  of  the 
damned ;  nor  are  they  used  in  this  sense  by  any 
of  the  Fathers  in  the  first  three  centuries." 

Dr.  George  Campbell,  in  his  dissertations  on 
the  Gospels,  has  in  Vol.  I,  (p.  179,)  a  treatise 
on  the  terms  Gehenna  and  hades,  doubtless 
the  most  critical  and  able  in  the  English  lan- 
guage. On  page  180  he  says  of  hades,  "  The 
corresponding  word  in  the  Old  Testament  is 
sheol,  which  signifies  the  state  of  the  dead  in 
general,  without  regard  to  the  goodness  or 
badness  of  the  persons,  their  happiness  or 
misery.  In  translating  that  word  the  LXX 
have  almost  invariably  used  hades."  Again, 
on  page  1 87,  he  says  the  word  grave,  or  sepul- 
cher,  never  conveys  the  full  import  of  the  He- 
brew sheol  or  the  Greek  hades.    Again,  on  page 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.    6l 

191  he  says,  "  So  much  then  for  the  literal  sense 
of  the  word  hades,  which,  as  has  been  observed, 
implies  neither  hell  nor  grave,  but  the  place  or 
state  of  departed  souls." 

Dr.  Lange,  in  his  comment  on  Luke  xvi, 
says,  "  Hades  is  the  general  designation  of  the 
abode  of  departed  spirits."  And  throughout 
his  truly  learned  and  able  Commentary,  this 
specific,  obvious  meaning  of  hades  and  of  its 
cognates  is  uniformly  and  distinctly  observed 
and  stated. 

Dr.  Whedon,  in  his  notes  on  Luke  xvi,  says, 
"  In  hell,  or  hades,  or  the  great  unseen  ;  that  is, 
the  invisible  place,  or  region  of  disembodied 
spirits." 

This  list  of  names  and  quotations  might  be 
indefinitely  extended.  But  why  do  so  ?  These 
are  sufficient  to  show  that  the  New  Testament 
teaching  concerning  the  place  and  state  of  the 
dead  has  not  escaped  the  notice  of  some  of  the 
most  able  scholars  and  Biblical  expositors  of 
the  world;  and  for  those  who  want  learned 
opinion  to  lean  upon,  this  is  sufficient.  If  they 
will  not  hear  these,  neither  would  they  hear 
though  a  thousand  more  were  added  to  them. 

There  is  a  philosophical  argument  in  favor 


62  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

of  such  a  place  and  state  of  the  dead  as  the 
New  Testament  teaches  ;  not  an  argument  of 
mere  speculative  philosophy,  but  of  the  philos- 
ophy of  human  life,  resting  upon  the  well-known 
facts  of  human  life  and  human  character  in 
this  world.  Human  life  is  a  moral  compound 
not  pure  ;  human  character  is  a  mixed  char- 
acter, neither  absolutely  good  nor  bad,  but  a 
blending  of  the  two.  In  the  best  and  purest 
there  remain  some  elements  of  evil,  and  in  the 
worst  may  be  found  some  remains  of  good. 
An  absolutely  bad,  evil,  or  pure  and  good  life 
and  character  you  may  not  find  in  this  world. 
And  this  is  so  until  the  moment  of  death. 
Then  must  not  the  place  and  state  beyond  be 
such  as  the  moral  and  spiritual  state  of  human 
character  is  fitted  for  as  it  leaves  this  world  ? 
These  facts  would  lead  us  at  least  to  suppose 
that  the  destiny  of  souls  immediately  after  death 
can  not  be  heaven,  the  celestial  paradise,  or  hell, 
as  the  second  death.  Of  the  ultimate  heaven 
we  must  suppose  a  place  of  absolute  good  and 
purity  ;  no  possible  shade  or  spot  of  sin  or  evil 
can  pertain  to  life  or  character  there  ;  a  state, 
too,  of  full  maturity  and  development  in  spirit- 
ual divine  life.     So,  too,  on  the  opposite  must 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   63 

we  suppose  hell  to  be  a  place  and  state  of 
absolute  evil  and  badness,  where  no  possible 
element  of  good  or  purity  can  enter  or  remain  ; 
a  state  of  absolute  spiritual  death.  Now  we 
may  suppose  the  possibility  of  some  human 
souls  at  death  being  either  so  absolutely  good 
and  pure,  so  fully  matured  in  the  fullness  of 
the  divine  spiritual  life  in  Christ  Jesus,  as  to  be 
fitted  to  pass  at  once  to  the  ultimate  heaven  ; 
or  so  absolutely  bad  and  evil,  so  utterly  dead 
spiritually,  as  to  pass  at  once  to  Gehenna.  I 
say  we  can  suppose  such  a  fact  in  human  life 
and  destiny  ;  it  may  possibly  be  so — we  do  n't 
know.  But  we  do  know  that  such  can  not  be 
the  case  with  the  mass  of  human  character 
and  life  ;  therefore  the  commonly  expressed 
conception  of  the  theological  and  Christian 
mind  that  heaven  or  hell  is  the  immediate  des- 
tiny of  souls  at  death  can  not  be  true,  simply 
because  souls  are  not  fitted  for  such  destiny. 
True,  we  are  taught  in  one  of  the  old  cate- 
chisms that  souls  of  believers  are  at  death 
made  perfect  in  holiness  and  received  to  glory. 
But  where  is  there  authority  for  such  teaching? 
Death  is  no  soul-purifying  process ;  no  divine 
life-giving  or  life-developing  process,  but  sim- 


64  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

ply  a  transition.  It  is  absurd  to  suppose  that 
the  man,  a  spiritual  infant  at  death,  is  a  full- 
grown  spiritual  man  in  Christ  Jesus  imme- 
diately after  death.  The  man  is  doubtless  the 
same  as  to  his  spiritual  life  and  moral  charac- 
ter after  death  that  he  was  before.  Equally 
unfounded  and  unfortunate  is  that  conception, 
the  logical  sequence  of  most  all  our  teaching 
on  this  subject,  that  souls  at  death  go  imme- 
diately to  heaven  or  hell,  but  at  judgment  and 
resurrection  return  again  to  this  earth  to  re- 
ceive their  bodies,  be  judged,  and  return  again 
to  heaven  or  hell  to  realize  a  greater  complete- 
ness of  bliss  or  depth  of  misery.  There  is  so 
much  that  is  crude,  unphilosophical,  and  even 
absurd  about  such  conception,  that  it  would 
be  waste  of  time  to  consider  it.  How  much 
more  philosophical  and  in  harmony  with  com- 
mon sense,  to  suppose  that  for  all  human  be- 
ings as  they  leave  this  world  there  is  provided 
a  world  with  states  and  conditions  just  suited  to 
the  mixed,  imperfect,  and  undeveloped  states 
of  their  lives  and  character,  where  they  will 
be  judged,  where  they  will  be  fitted  for  their 
still  higher  destiny  in  heaven — and  to  which 
tJicy  rise  as  they  attain  to  the  resurrection  of 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   65 

the  dead  ;  or  from  whence  they  will  pass  to 
their  deeper  death  in  Gehenna  as  their  evils 
become  absolute !  That  such  conception  of 
the  destiny  of  the  dead,  and  of  hades,  the  place 
of  the  dead,  is  in  harmony  with  the  Scriptures, 
is  at  least  clear  to  my  mind. 

There  is  one  other  consideration  on  this 
subject  deserving  a  moment's  thought.  It 
may  be  termed  the  historical  argument.  It 
rests  upon  the  fact  that  the  doctrine  of  hades 
as  an  intermediate  world  was  held  very  gener- 
ally by  the  primitive  Church  succeeding  the 
days  of  the  Apostles.  True,  this  fact  alone 
does  not  prove  the  doctrine  true.  At  least  I 
am  not  one  of  those  who  believe  that  the  doc- 
trine and  faith  of  the  primitive  Church  were 
any  more  infallible  than  the  Church  now.  No 
doubt  the  early  Fathers  held  and  taught  a 
great  many  notions  and  doctrines  as  unreason- 
able and  as  absurd  as  we  do  now.  But  this 
fact  is  of  great  importance,  as  it  shows  what 
was  the  understood  sense  of  these  terms  in 
the  days  next  the  Apostles.  Dr.  Knapp,  as 
we  have  already  seen,  says  this  word  hades 
was  not  used  in  the  sense  either  of  hell  or 
the  grave  by  any  of  the  Fathers  during  the 


66  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

first  three  centuries.  And  Dr.  Shedd,  in  his 
History  of  Christian  Doctrines,  says  the  doc- 
trine of  an  intermediate  state  not  only  main- 
tained itself,  but  gained  in  authority  as  late 
as  the  seventh  century.  After  that  period, 
and  during  the  dark  ages,  when  the  whole 
Church  became  apostate,  this  doctrine  was 
perverted  into  the  absurd  and  abominable  doc- 
trine of  the  Roman  Catholic  purgatory,  which 
transformed  the  New  Testament  hades  and  in- 
termediate state  into  a  kind  of  ecclesiastical 
limbo,  where  souls  were  exposed  to  all  imagin- 
able sufferings,  and  from  which  they  were  to 
be  delivered  by  the  prayers  and  money — espe- 
cially the  money — of  their  pious  friends.  So 
that  buying  souls  out  of  purgatory  became  an 
extensive  commerce  in  the  fallen  Church,  and, 
to  some  extent,  continues  to  this  day.  At  the 
rise  of  the  Reformation,  this  doctrine  of  pur- 
gatory, with  its  absurd  and  pernicious  results, 
constituted  one  of  the  leading  abominations 
of  the  Roman  Church  ;  and,  in  order  to  put 
this  pernicious  doctrine  out  of  the  Church,  no 
doubt  Luther  and  his  coadjutors  allowed  their 
disgust  and  zeal  to  go  too  far.  Hence  the 
translation  -of  hades  grave  and   hell.     Thus, 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.    6j 

instead  of  reforming  the  abuse  of  the  truth,  the 
truth  itself  has  well-nigh  been  lost  to  the  Chris- 
tian Church.  Other  translators  have  followed, 
and  even  our  own  English  translation  has  done 
the  same.  True,  it  has  swept  all  foundation 
for  a  purgatory  out  of  the  New  Testament,  but 
at  the  same  time  it  has  well-nigh  swept  out  of 
it  the  most  important  truth  concerning  the 
place  and  state  of  the  dead  ;  so  that  the 
teaching  and  faith  of  the  Protestant  Church 
are  exceedingly  dim  and  shadowy  concerning 
the  state  of  the  dead  after  they  leave  this 
world.  For  some  it  is  a  state  of  unconscious 
existence — a  sleep  of  both  body  and  soul  until 
the  resurrection.  To  others  it  is  an  eternal 
sleep.  Others  seem  to  have  the  conception  of 
a  shadowy  existence  of  mere  ghosts.  Many 
seem  to  speak  of  it  as  a  state  in  which  the 
personality  of  the  dead  is  rent  in  twain — the 
soul  somewhere  in  the  skies,  and  the  body,  still 
an  essential  part  of  the  personal  being,  some- 
where in  the  dust.  And  the  fullest  realization 
reached  by  any  is  that  immediately  after  death 
the  souls  go  either  to  heaven  or  hell,  and  must 
remain  there  to  the  last  day  of  this  world, 
when  they  will  return  again  to  thfe  world,  to 


68  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

receive  their  bodies  again,  and  then  return  to 
renew  their  life  in  heaven  or  hell. 

And  not  until  we  return  to  the  true  New 
Testament  teaching  of  the  place  and  state 
of  the  dead,  will  we  find  a  rational  and  satisfy- 
ing realization  to  our  faith.  Not  until  then  do 
we  realize  by  faith  that  the  dead  who  have  left 
us  are  still  persons — real,  substantial,  spiritual 
persons — and  that  they  have  reached  a  sub- 
stantial spiritual  world,  with  abodes  or  states 
just  suited  to  their  conditions  of  spiritual  life, 
and  with  all  the  conditions  of  their  spiritual 
development,  until  they  attain  the  resurrection, 
and  rise  to  the  fullness  of  eternal  life  in  the 
heavens,  or  sink  to  the  abodes  of  eternal  death, 
accordingly  as  they  pass  the  judgment,  and  as 
their  life  in  this  world  was  in  Christ,  who  is 
the  Life,  or  was  without  him.  A  brief  inquiry 
concerning  the  personality  of  the  dead  will 
close  this  chapter.  Our  metaphysico-theolog- 
ical  teaching  on  this  subject  is  exceedingly 
shadowy.  It  gives  us  the  idea  of  a  personal 
existence,  without  body  or  parts — a  mere 
ghostly  existence,  in  which  personality  must 
consist  in  little  else  than  certain  psychical 
proper ties-*-so  that  it  is  worth  while  to  look 


TH-E    RESURRECTION   OF   THE    DEAD.         69 

closely  to  the  Word  to  see  what  conception  it 
helps  us  to,  and  in  what  tangible  properties  it 
clothes  the  personality  of  the  living  dead : 

"  And  as  touching  the  dead,  that  they  rise  ; 
have  ye  not  read  in  the  book  of  Moses,  how 
in  the  bush  God  spake  unto  him,  saying,  I  am 
the  God  of  Abraham,  and  the  God  of  Isaac, 
and  the  God  of  Jacob  ?  He  is  not  the  God 
of  the  dead,  but  the  God  of  the  living:  ye, 
therefore,  do  greatly  err.,,    Mark  xii,  26,  27. 

"And  it  came  to  pass,  about  an  eight  days 
after  these  sayings,  he  took  Peter,  and  John, 
and  James,  and  went  up  into  a  mountain  to 
pray.  And  as  he  prayed,  the  fashion  of  his 
countenance  was  altered,  and  his  raiment  was 
white  and  glistering.  And  behold,  there  talked 
with  him  two  men,  which  were  Moses  and 
Elias:  who  appeared  in  glory,  and  spake  of 
his  decease  which  he  should  accomplish  at  Je- 
rusalem."    Luke  ix,  28-31. 

"And  he  said  unto  Jesus,  Lord,  remember 
me  when  thou  comest  into  thy  kingdom.  And 
Jesus  said  unto  him,  Verily  I  say  unto  thee, 
To-day  shalt  thou  be  with  me  in  paradise." 
Luke  xxiii,  42,  43. 

"After  this  I  beheld,  and  lo,  a  great  multi- 


70  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

tude,  which  no  man  could  number,  of  all  na- 
tions, and  kindreds,  and  people,  and  tongues, 
stood  before  the  throne,  and  before  the  Lamb, 
clothed  with  white  robes,  and  palms  in  their 
hands :  and  cried  with  a  loud  voice,  saying, 
Salvation  to  our  God  which  sitteth  upon  the 
throne,  and  unto  the  Lamb.  And  all  the  angels 
stood  round  about  the  throne,  and  about  the 
elders  and  the  four  beasts,  and  fell  before  the 
throne  on  their  faces,  and  worshiped  God, 
saying,  Amen :  Blessing,  and  glory,  and  wis- 
dom, and  thanksgiving,  and  honor,  and  power, 
and  might,  be  unto  our  God  for  ever  and  ever. 
Amen.  And  one  of  the  elders  answered,  say- 
ing unto  me,  What  are  these  which  are  arrayed 
in  white  robes  ?  and  ^whence  came  they  ?  And 
I  said  unto  him,  Sir,  thou  knowest.  And  he 
said  to  me,  These  are  they  which  came  out  of 
great  tribulation,  and  have  washed  their  robes, 
and  made  them  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb. 
Therefore  are  they  before  the  throne  of  God, 
and  serve  him  day  and  night  in  his  temple : 
and  he  that  sitteth  on  the  throne  shall  dwell 
among  them.  They  shall  hunger  no  more, 
neither  thirst  any  more  ;  neither  shall  the  sun 
light  on  them,  nor  any  heat.     For  the  Lamb 


TIJE    RESURRECTION    OF   THE   DEAD.         71 

which  is  in  the  midst  of  the  throne  shall  feed 
them,  and  shall  lead  them  unto  living  fount- 
ains of  waters  ;  and  God  shall  wipe  away  all 
tears  from  their  eyes."     Rev.vii,9-i7. 

"And  after  these  things  I  heard  a  great 
voice  of  much  people  in  heaven,  saying,  Alle- 
luia :  Salvation,  and  glory,  and  honor,  and 
power,  unto  the  Lord  our  God."  Rev.  xix,  i. 
"And  he  saith  unto  me,  Write,  Blessed  are 
they  which  are  called  unto  the  marriage-sup- 
per of  the  Lamb.  And  he  saith  unto  me, 
These  are  the  true  sayings  of  God.  And  I  fell 
at  his  feet  to  worship  him.  And  he  said  unto 
me,  See  thou  do  it  not :  I  am  thy  fellow- 
servant,  and  of  thy  brethren  that  have  the 
testimony  of  Jesus :  worship  God :  for  the  tes- 
timony of  Jesus  is  the  spirit  of  prophecy." 
Rev.  xix,  9,  10.  "And  when  he  had  opened 
the  fifth  seal,  I  saw  under  the  altar  the  souls 
of  them  that  were  slain  for  the  word  of  God, 
and  for  the  testimony  which  they  held  :  and 
they  cried  with  a  loud  voice,  saying,  How  long, 
O  Lord,  holy  and  true,  dost  thou  not  judge 
and  avenge  our  blood  on  them  that  dwell  on 
the  earth  ?  And  white  robes  were  given  unto 
every  one  of  them ;  and  it  was  said  unto  them, 


J2  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

that  they  should  rest  yet  for  a  little  season, 
until  their  fellow-servants  also  and  their  breth- 
ren, that  should  be  killed  as  they  were,  should 
be  fulfilled."     Rev.  vi,  9-1 1. 

These  passages  might  be  extended.  What 
is  the  conception  of  the  personality  of  the 
dead  which  they  obviously  suggest  ?  Thus, 
God  is  the  God  of  the  living,  not  of  the  dead. 
And  who  are  the  living  dead  here  mentioned  ? 
Abraham,  Isaac,  Jacob — not  the  ghost  or  in- 
corporeal souls  of  these  patriarchs,  but  them- 
selves. The  disciples  saw  on  the  Mount  two 
men.  Jesus  said  to  the  penitent  thief,  "Thou 
shalt  be  with  me!'  The  rich  man  in  hades 
saw  Lazarus  in  Abraham's  bosom,  not  the 
ghost  of  Lazarus  in  the  bosom  of  Abraham's 
ghost.  And  of  the  rich  man  it  is  said  "he 
lifted  up  his  eyes,"  etc.  And  John  says  of  the 
redeemed,  the  great  multitude,  they  had  palms 
in  their  hands,  white  robes.  He  heard  their 
voices  as  many  waters.  They  stood  on  the 
Mount  Zion  before  the  throne.  They  follozv 
the  Lamb.  And  he  fell  at  the  feet  of  the 
Glorious  One  to  worship  him.  Yet  he  was 
one  of  the  redeemed,  one  of  the  prophets. 
And  even  the  souls  under  the  altar  cried  out 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.    73 

with  a  loud  voice,  and  robes  were  given  unto 
than,  etc. 

Now,  it  would  be  difficult  for  language  to 
be  used  in  expressing  the  idea  of  personality 
more  absolutely  than  in  these  verses.  How 
like  real,  organized,  personal  beings  are  the 
dead  thus  introduced  to  us !  And  so  mani- 
festly is  the  New  Testament  idea  of  the  per- 
sonality of  the  dead  that  of  real,  substantial, 
personal  human  beings,  even  in  corporeal 
form,  that  even  when  the  more  psychical 
terms  soul  or  spirit  are  used  it  is  rather  to 
distinguish  the  spirituality  of  the  dead  from 
the  materiality  of  the  living  than  to  convey 
the  idea  of  incorporeal,  psychical  existence. 
6 


CHAPTER  IV. 

"O  death,  where   is   thy  sting?     O  Hades,  where  is  thy 
victory  ?" 

OUR  inquiry  will  now  be  concerning  the 
local  scene  of  the  resurrection,  or  the 
place  whence  the  dead  rise,  and  in  what  will 
consist  the  ultimate  glorious  and  triumphant 
victory  of  the  final  resurrection.  According 
to  the  literal  interpretations  and  theological 
teachings  generally  accepted,  that  scene  is  to 
be  on  this  earth,  the  dead  are  to  rise  out  of 
the  literal  graves,  and  the  ultimate  glorious 
triumph  is  to  consist  in  raising  the  very  last 
moldering  body  out  of  the  earth.  But  is  it 
certain  that  such  is  the  teaching  of  the  Word 
itself,  or  is  it  more  the  teaching  of  human 
theologies  ?  Does  it  rest  on  the  Word,  or  on 
the  human  interpretation  of  the  Word  ?  Let 
us  pursue  this  inquiry  in  the  light  of  a  few 
representative  passages  of  the  Word. 
74 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.    75 

"  So  when  this  corruptible  shall  have  put 
on  incorruption,  and  this  mortal  shall  have 
put  on  immortality,  then  shall  be  brought  to 
pass  the  saying  that  is  written,  Death  is  swal- 
lowed up  in  victory.  O  death,  where  is  thy 
sting?  O  grave,  where  is  thy  victory?"  I 
Cor.  xv,  54,  55.  These  verses  contain  the 
whole  theme  of  present  inquiry,  and  just  what 
they  teach  is  determined  by  the  meaning  Paul 
expresses  by  the  words  death  and  grave.  Are 
these  terms  to  be  limited  to  physical  death 
and  to  the  earthly  grave  of  the  body?  Was 
this  Paul's  idea?  Why,  then,  did  he  use  the 
term  hades,  and  for  what  reason  is  that  term 
here  translated  grave  and  nowhere  else  in  the 
New  Testament  ?  and  why  should  it  be  here 
turned  aside  from  its  uniform  meaning  wher- 
ever used  in  the  New  Testament  ?  Is  it  not 
certain  that  Paul  had  the  very  same  idea  in 
the  use  of  the  term  here  that  Matthew,  Luke, 
Peter,  and  John  had  as  they  use  it,  and  that 
he  means  the  same  by  hades  here  that  he 
does  by  the  "lower  parts  of  the  earth,"  and 
"  under  the  earth,"  and  the  abyss — Romans 
x,  7 — that  is,  the  place  of  the  dead  previous 
to  their  resurrection,  the  place  whither  Christ 


?6  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

descended  and  whence  he  arose  ?  Now,  what 
reason  can  be  given  for  changing  and  limiting 
the  uniform  meaning  of  this  word  to  grave  in 
this  text  ?  I  can  think  of  no  reason  but  to 
harmonize  this  passage  with  the  literal  idea 
of  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  from  the  earth. 
By  what  authority  is  that  allowable  ?  Then 
let  us  give  to  hades  here  its  own  full,  uniform 
meaning.  Then  the  meaning  of  this  passage 
goes  far  beyond  mere  physical  death  and  the 
grave  in  the  dust ;  then  this  prophetic  shout 
of  triumph  means  much  more  than  victory 
over  the  sting  of  bodily  death  and  the  dust 
grave  of  the  fleshly  body.  It  extends  to  the 
dominion  of  death  in  the  under  world  or  great 
unseen.  It  locates  the  scene  of  the  resurrec- 
tion there.  It  proclaims  an  ultimate  triumph 
over  the  last  and  uttermost  power  and  of 
death,  that  victory  which  began  with  Christ, 
who  first  triumphed  over  death  and  hades,  and 
which  is  to  end  at  his  coming  by  the  resurrec- 
tion from  hades  of  all  the  dead  "  in  Christ." 
And  thus  is  made  plain  the  teaching  of  the 
context.  In  verse  fifty  is  taught  that  "  flesh 
and  blood" — or  the  earthly  body — can  not 
inherit  the  kingdom  of  God,  neither  comiption 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.    JJ 

inherit  incorruption.  Verse  fifty-one  teaches 
that  at  the  consummation,  the  coming  of 
the  Lord,  the  dead  will  be  raised  "  incor- 
ruptible"— that  is,  in  spiritual,  incorruptible 
bodies — and  the  then  living,  who  will  "  not 
sleep"  or  attain  to  spiritual,  incorruptible 
bodies  through  death  and  resurrection,  will 
be  changed,  will  drop  their  earthly,  corrupti- 
ble bodies  and  be  clothed  with  their  spiritual 
in  a  "moment."  When  this  corruptible  shall 
have  "  put  on  incorruption,"  when  we  who 
are  alive  at  his  coming  and  will  not  die 
have  dropped  our  earthly  houses — I  Cor.  xv — 
or  bodies  and  have  put  on  our  incorruptible, 
heavenly  bodies,  when  all  the  dead  in  Christ 
are  raised  out  of  hades  in  their  incorruptible, 
spiritual  bodies,  then  the  shout  of  glorious  tri- 
umph will  rise,  "  O  death,  where  is  thy  sting  ? 
O  hades,  where  is  thy  victory?"  Now,  is  it 
not  plain  that  this  means  much  more  than 
the  calling  up  of  dead  bodies  from  the  grave, 
and  is  it  not  plain  that  the  real  scene  of  the 
rising  of  the  dead  is  located  in  the  spiritual 
world  ?  The  dead  are  tJiere,  not  in  the  grave, 
and  from  thence  they  rise,  not  from  the  earth. 
The  only  earthly  scene  of  the  final  resurrec- 


7$  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

tion  is  to  be  the  changing  of  those  alive  in  the 
body.  And  the  final  consummation  and  glori- 
ous triumph  of  the  resurrection  will  reach  to 
the  absolute  abolishment  of  death,  and  of  the 
dominion  of  death,  not  only  in  body  but  in 
soul,  not  only  on  this  earth  but  in  hades ;  and 
in  view  of  such  a  consummation  and  of  such  a 
triumph,  well  may  we  say  with  Paul,  "Thanks 
be  to  God  which  giveth  us  the  victory  through 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ; ;"  especially  if  we  con- 
sciously realize  that  he  is  now  to  us  the  "  resur- 
rection and  the  life." 

Another  passage  is  identical  in  meaning  with 
this.  It  is  Rev.  xxi,  13,  14:  "And  the  sea 
gave  up  the  dead  which  were  in  it  ;  and  death 
and  hell  delivered  up  the  dead  which  were  in 
them  :  and  they  were  judged  every  man  accord- 
ing to  their  works.  And  death  and  hell  were 
cast  into  the  lake  of  fire.  This  is  the  second 
death."  This,  too,  is  doubtless  a  prophetic 
vision  of  the  final  consummation  of  the  resur- 
rection of  the  dead.  John  discloses  the  very 
same  scene  that  does  Paul  in  the  passage  con- 
sidered above.  And  where  is  the  scene  lo- 
cated, and  of  what  does  it  consist  ?  According 
to  our  translation  it  is  located  in  hell.     Thus, 


'the  resurrection  of  the  dead.      79 

death  and  hell  gave  up  the  "dead  which  were 
in  them."  Thus,  according  to  the  literal  and 
commonly  received  interpretation,  Paul  is 
made  to  locate  the  scene  of  the  final  glorious 
resurrection  triumph  in  the  grave,  and  makes 
it  consist  in  the  literal  rising  up  of  dead  bodies 
from  the  dust ;  while  John  is  made  to  locate 
the  same  triumph  in  Jicll,  and  makes  it  consist 
in  the  delivering  up  of  the  dead  out  of  hell.  It 
were  difficult  to  tell  which  of  these  is  the 
widest  of  the  truth,  and  which  it  were  best  to 
accept.  But,  fortunately,  we  need  accept 
neither.  We  have  already  seen  in  the  pre- 
vious consideration  of  this  passage,  that  hades, 
unfortunately  translated  hell,  must  be  allowed 
its  own  true  and  uniform  meaning,  the  mediate 
place  and  state  of  the  dead  ;  then  its  teaching 
in  this  connection  is  plain  enough.  It  is  that 
at  the  final  consummation  of  the  resurrection 
all  the  dead  will  be  raised  from  the  mediate 
state ;  thus  death  and  hades  will  deliver  up 
the  dead,  and  death  and  hades  will  be  cast 
into  the  lake  of  fire.  That  is  the  complete 
and  everlasting  triumph  over  death,  and 
death's  dominion  will  be  achieved.  And  this 
is  precisely  what   Paul   teaches,  and  precisely 


SO  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

the  same  victory  of  immortality  over  death 
over  which  he  utters  the  prophetic  shout  of  tri- 
umph— perfect  harmony  between  them.  They 
both  locate  the  scene  of  the  resurrection  in  the 
spiritual  world,  and  both  make  it  consist  in  the 
rising  of  all  the  dead  from  hades,  and  the  utter 
abolishment  of  death  and  death's  dominion. 
But  it  may  be  urged  that  the  saying  in  verse 
13,  "the  sea  gave  up  the  dead  which  were  in 
it,"  teaches  that  the  scene  of  the  resurrection 
is  located  on  this  earth  and  is  to  consist  in  the 
raising  of  dead  bodies  from  sea  and  land.  But 
if  we  insist  on  a  literal  interpretation  of  sea, 
here,  and  of  the  term  dead  as  meaning  literally 
dead  bodies  in  the  sea,  then  the  dead  must 
have  the  same  meaning  elsewhere  in  the  pas- 
sage, thus  :  "  Death  and  hell  gave  up  the  dead 
bodies  which  were  in  them :  and  I  saw  the  dead 
bodies,  small  and  great,  stand  before  God  :  and 
the  dead  bodies  were  judged,"  etc.  There  is 
certainly  a  difficulty  here,  but  I  leave  it  for  the 
consideration  of  such  as  insist  on  a  literal  in- 
terpretation of  such  passages  in  support  of  a 
literal  resurrection  of  dead  bodies  from  the 
earth  and  the  sea.  There  is  one  other  passage 
from  John  which  must  be  considered  in  this 


THE    RESURRECTION    OF    THE    DEAD.        8 1 

connection  ;  it  is  from  his  Gospel,  ch.  v,  28,  29 : 
"  Marvel  not  at  this  :  for  the  hour  is  coming,  in 
the  which  all  that  are  in  the  graves  shall  hear 
his  voice,  and  shall  come  forth  ;  they  that  have 
done  good,  unto  the  resurrection  of  life ;  and 
they  that  have  done  evil,  unto  the  resurrec- 
tion of  damnation/'  This  passage  is  doubtless 
linked  in  meaning  with  that  of  Paul  and  the 
other  of  John  just  considered.  It  predicates 
the  same  general  resurrection  consummation  ; 
but  at  first  view  it  would  seem  to  widely  differ 
in  meaning  from  either.  It  seems  to  predicate 
the  resurrection  of  those  in  the  graves,  and  thus 
place  or  locate  the  scene  of  the  resurrection 
on  or  in  this  earth,  and  limit  it  to  the  rising  of 
the  bodies  of  the  dead.  This  appears  from  the 
fact  that  the  term  graves  is  used  in  our  trans- 
lation, and  because  the  term  hades  is  not  used 
in  the  Greek,  but  pvq/ula,  which  properly  means 
monuments,  or  tombs,  or  sepulchers.  This 
form  of  statement  would  seem  to  have  no  ref- 
erence whatever  to  hades,  or  to  the  rising  of 
the  dead  therefrom.  But  I  think  a  careful 
study  of  the  text  will  show  that  its  full  mean- 
ing and  spirit  can  not  be  reached  by  a  close  or 
even  free  literal  interpretation  thereof.    Hence 


82  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

our  inquiry  must  be,  what  is  the/////  meaning 
of  this  passage  taken  both  in  its  letter  and 
spirit?  In  thus  quoting  from  Jesus,  the  Great 
Teacher,  what  did  John  mean  to  express  by 
this  language?  It  is  pretty  safe  to  assume 
that  the  full  meaning  of  this  text  will  be  found 
in  one  of  three  interpretations :  I.  That  it 
predicates  the  resurrection  literally  and  exclu- 
sively of  the  bodies,  the  earthly  bodies  of  the 
dead  from  the  literal  tombs  or  graves.  2.  That 
it  predicates  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  as 
persons,  both  soul  and  body,  from  the  literal 
earthly  tombs  or  graves.  3.  That  it  predicates 
the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  as  persons,  from 
hades,  the  place  of  the  dead  in  general,  using 
the  term  graves  by  metonymy  for  hades. 

The  first  is  compassed  about  with  very  great 
difficulties,  and  it  seems  impossible  to  limit  the 
full  meaning  of  the  text  to  such  interpretation. 
There  is  a  philological  difficulty;  thus,  in  the 
use  of  the  relative  pronoun  they.  In  the  Greek 
it  is  7:d>T£<;  6t}  all  wJw,  evidently  agreeing  with 
vttpoi  understood  ;  and  would  read,  all  the  dead 
who  are  in  the  graves.  But  this  can  not  be 
limited  in  meaning  to  bodies,  for  then*  the 
Greek  would  have  to  be  ndvra,  to  agree  with 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.    83 

(Tajiiara ;  then  is  it  plain  that  they,  *r4vrt<  »f,  can 
not  refer  to  (rwimzay  or  bodies,  but  to  vsx/W,  the 
dead.  And  we  have  already  seen  that  the 
dead,  in  its  general  New  Testament  use,  can 
not  be  limited  to  mean  body,  or  bodies,  but  to 
the  dead  as  persons ;  so  then,  according  to  the 
plain  construction  of  the  Greek  text,  the  resur- 
rection is  not  predicated  of  all  the  bodies  in  the 
graves,  but  of  all  the  dead  as  persons  who  arc  in 
the  graves.  But  again,  it  said  they,  JMbrtc  •/, 
shall  "hear his  voice" — shall  come  forth — they 
that  have  done  good  and  tJicy  that  have  done 
evil,  etc.  Now  how  could  hearing  the  voice  of 
God  be  predicated  of  the  dust  in  the  graves  ? 
Besides,  what  proportion  of  the  bodies  of  the 
dead  are  in  graves  at  all  ?  and  how  could  doing 
good  or  doing  evil  be  predicated  of  the  dust  of 
dead  bodies  ?  is  such  dust  the  subject  of  moral 
accountability  ?  what  good  or  evil  did  ever  mere 
flesh  and  bones  do,  even  whei!  alive  ?  Then  is 
it  not  plain  that  the  whole  teaching  of  these 
verses  can  not  be  limited  to  the  bodies  of  the 
dead  in  the  graves  ?  Therefore  the  strictly  lit- 
eral interpretation  can  not  be  true,  because  it 
does  not  bring  out  the  full,  true  meaning  of 
either  the  letter  or  spirit  of  the  text.     It  really 


84  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

empties  it  of  meaning  and  really  makes  it  teach 
absurdities. 

Then,  is  the  true  meaning  to  be  found  in  the 
second  interpretation  ?  which  is,  that  it  predi- 
cates the  resurrection  of  the  dead  as  persons 
from  the  literal  earthly  graves.  That  it  does 
predicate  the  Jiearing  and  coming  forth  of  the 
dead  as  persons,  and  not  of  dead  bodies,  is  no 
doubt  true  ;  but  are  they  literally  to  hear  in 
the  earthly  graves  and  come  forth  out  of  the 
earth  ? 

If  so,  then  it  must  follow  that  the  literal 
graves  in  the  earth  must  be  the  place  and  state 
of  the  dead,  body  and  soul  ;  there  must  they 
abide,  body  and  soul,  during  the  intermediate 
state  between  death  and  the  resurrection,  and 
not  in  hades,  as  elsewhere  uniformly  taught  in 
the  New  Testament.  There,  in  the  literal 
earthly  graves,  must  be  the  paradise  where 
went  Lazarus,  and  Christ,  and  the  penitent 
thief;  there  the  hell  or  place  of  torment 
where  went  the  rich  man,  and  all  who  have 
done  evil  ;  and  there  now  in  the  earthly  graves 
must  be  all  the  dead  ;  for  it  is  in  the  graves 
where  the  voice  is  to  be  heard.  And  how  shall 
they  hear  if  they  be  not  in  the  graves  ?     But 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.    85 

it  is  said  by  one,*  "  the  meaning  is  not  that 
the  souls  of  the  dead  are  nozv  in  the  graves, 
but  that  just  previous  to  the  resurrection  they 
will  return  to  re-iufuse  the  bodies ;  and  thus  be 
ready  to  hear  the  voice  and  come  forth  in  en- 
tire manhood,  men  and  women  !"  Indeed  ! 
But  is  not  this  downright  assumption  ?  Where 
is  there  a  word  or  verse  in  the  whole  New 
Testament  which  even  hints  at  this  return  of 
souls  from  heaven  or  hell  to  re-infuse  the  dust 
in  the  graves  ?  Then  the  idea  of  "  men  "  and 
"women"  waiting  there  under  ground  to  hear 
the  literal  voice  of  Jesus  !  Manifestly  the  true 
meaning  of  these  verses  can  not  be  reached  in 
this  ;  they  do  not  predicate  the  resurrection  of 
the  dead  in  the  literal  graves,  because  the  dead 
are  not  there.  The  plain,  uniform  teaching  of 
the  New  Testament  is,  that  the  dead  are  in 
the  spiritual  world,  not  in  the  earth,  and  com- 
mon sense  teaches  the  same.  Then  let  the 
graves  be  understood  as  figurative,  as  used  by 
metonymy  for  the  place  in  general  of  the  dead. 
Then  the  meaning  is,  the  hour  is  coming  in 
which  all  the  dead  throughout  the  whole  do- 
minions of  death  and  hades,  shall  hear   the 

*Cal.  C.  Advocate. 


86  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

voice  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  shall  come  forth 
in  the  final  resurrection,  they  that  have  done 
good  to  the  resurrection  of  life ;  they  that  have 
done  evil  unto  the  resurrection  of  damnation. 
Thus  understood,  the  teaching  is  precisely  the 
same  as  that  of  John  in  Rev.  xxi,  and  the  mean- 
ing is  the  same  with  that  of  Paul  in  i  Cor.  xv, 
S4»  55  ;  and  it  perfectly  harmonizes  with  the 
preceding  context.  In  verses  21  and  26,  Jesus 
announces  that  he  is  endowed  with  the  life- 
giving  power;  in  verses  24,  25,  he  declares  the 
hour  is  now  come  when  all  the  dead  that  hear 
his  voice  shall  live.  By  the  dead  here  is  meant 
those  who  are  alive  in  the  body — alive  intellect- 
ually but  dead  spiritually — destitute  of  divine 
life.  By  their  living  is  meant  that  they  shall, 
by  spiritual  regeneration,  be  made  partakers 
of  his  Divine  spiritual  life.  Then  he  says, 
"  Marvel  not  at  this,  for  the  hour  is  coming 
when  all  the  dead  in  the  graves  shall  hear  his 
voice  ;"  that  his  power  over  death  shall  extend 
throughout  the  dominions  of  death  ;  and  even 
they  who  are  in  the  graves  or  utmost  domin- 
ion of  death,  but  have  done  good  while  living, 
shall  have  a  resurrection  unto  life.  And  as 
judgment  is  committed  unto  the  Son,  verse  22, 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.    8? 

he  will  also  bring  forth  to  judgment  the  dead 
who  have  done  evil.  Thus  the  harmony  with 
the  context  is  complete.  Moreover,  thus  un- 
derstood, these  texts  harmonize  with  the  gen- 
eral teaching  of  the  New  Testament  concerning 
the  resurrection  of  the  dead. 

Thus  it  would  seem  that  the  resurrection  of 
the  dead,  as  stated  in  general  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament, implies,  1st.  The  real  personal  exist- 
ence of  the  dead  after  the  dissolution  of  the 
material  bodily  existence  in  this  world.  2d. 
The  rising  of  the  dead  from  hades  to  judg- 
ment, and  a  subsequent  glorious  existence  in 
heaven;  or  of  misery  in  Gehenna.  3d.  To  the 
dead  in  Christ,  the  rising  from  the  dead  in 
hades  implies  a  deliverance  to  the  uttermost 
that  death  by  sin  has  reigned  over  them,  either 
in  body  or  soul,  and  their  attaining  ultimately 
to  the  fullness  of  everlasting  life  in  Jesus. 
Hence  the  general  New  Testament  teaching 
of  the  resurrection  and  the  life  is  not  con- 
cerning the  future  rising  of  dead  bodies  from 
the  earth,  though  it  includes  both  the  idea 
and  the  fact  of  a  bodily  resurrection.  And  to 
this  particular  and  interesting  feature  of  the 
general  subject  we  next  direct  inquiry. 


CHAPTER  V. 

"But  some  man  will  say,  how  are  the  dead  (ol  veKpoi) 
raised  up?  and  with  what  body  do  they  come?"  i  Cor. 
xv,  35- 

WHAT  do  New  Testament  authors  teach 
directly  concerning  the  resurrection 
of  the  bodies  of  the  dead,  or  concerning  a 
corporeal  resurrection  ?  Do  they  teach  that 
the  earthly  bodies  of  the  dead  will  at  some 
future  time  be  raised  out  of  the  earth,  and  be 
changed  into  the  spiritual  corporeality  of  the 
risen  saints  ?  For  in  this  part  of  the  subject 
inquiry  will  have  no  reference  to  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  wicked  whatever.  On  this  subject 
New  Testament  authors  are  almost  silent.  I 
find  but  two  passages  which  can  be  under- 
stood as  teaching  any  thing  concerning  the 
resurrection  of  the  wicked — Acts  xxiv,  15; 
John  v,  29.  In  these  it  is  expressly  taught 
there  will  be  a  resurrection  of  the  "unjust," 
and  that  they  that  have  done  evil  shall  come 
88 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.    89 

forth  to  the  resurrection  of  damnation.  The 
general  and  almost  exclusive  teaching  on  the 
resurrection  is  in  connection  with  Jesus,  the 
"resurrection  and  the  life,"  and  is  predicated 
of  those  "  in  Christ"  Especially  is  this  so  in 
this  fifteenth  chapter  of  Corinthians.  The 
teaching  is  exclusively  of  the  dead  in  Christ. 
Hence  our  inquiry  is  specifically  concerning 
the  resurrection  of  the  earthly  bodies  of  the 
dead  in  Christ.  I  shall  use  the  term  earthly, 
or  earthy,  exclusively  in  this  connection.  The 
reason  therefor  may  be  found  in  2  Cor.  v,  i,  2, 
and  1  Cor.  xv,  47-49.  Earthly  expresses  all 
that  is  included  in  "natural"  "mortal"  "cor- 
ruptible," "weak,"  "dishonored,"  and  "fleshly." 
All  these  characteristics  of  the  Adam  body  are 
included  in  its  earthiness.  Moreover,  it  is  of 
the  earth,  and  turns  to  earth  again.  Now  is 
it  obviously  taught  in  the  New  Testament 
that  these  earthly  bodies,  which  turn  to  dust, 
mingle  in  the  ten  thousand  combinations  of 
matter,  will  be  at  some  future  time  "  re-infused 
by  their  returning  souls"  or  by  the  miraculous 
power  of  God  raised  again  from  the  earth,  and 
transformed  into  the  glorified  spiritual  bodies 
of  the  risen  saints  of  God  ?  I  am  not  ignorant 
7 


gO  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

of  the  import  of  this  inquiry,  nor  indifferent 
as  to  its  possible  consequences.  To  most  or- 
thodox Christians  it  may  seem  nothing  less 
than  "calling  in  question  what  the  Christian 
world  regards  as  a  cardinal  article  of  faith, 
founded  on  the  Word  of  God."  Not  that  the 
faith  of  the  whole  Christian  world  rests  upon 
a  fleshly  resurrection ;  but  no  doubt  to  the 
faith  of  the  great  body  of  Christians  the  resur- 
rection of  the  dead  m.eans  little  or  nothing 
more  than  the  future  rising  of  the  fleshly 
bodies  of  the  dead  from  the  graves.  And  even 
the  glorious  spiritual  doctrine  of  the  "resurrec- 
tion and  the  life"  in  yesns  seems  to  mean  but 
little  else.  Of  course  inquiry  must  now  be 
strictly  confined  to  the  Scriptures  which  ob- 
viously and  specifically  speak  of  a  corporeal 
resurrection — for  we  have  already  seen  that 
the  general  term  dead,  so  uniformly  used  in 
connection  with  the  resurrection,  can  not  be 
limited  in  meaning  to  body  or  bodies — so  that 
the  resurrection  of  the  dead  does  not  mean 
the  same  thing  as  the  resurrection  of  bodies. 
From  the  general  use  of  this  term  it  is  not 
obviously  or  specifically  taught  whether  the 
dead  rise  with  bodies  at  all — much  less  that 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.    91 

they  rise  with  the  same  earthly  bodies  which 
returned  to  dust.  The  inquiry  concerning  the 
bodily  part  of  the  resurrection  must  be  an- 
swered by  specific,  direct  teachings  of  the 
Word — especially  the  inquiry,  Do  the  dead 
rise  with  the  same  earthly  bodies  which  have 
mingled  with  the  earth  for  centuries? — or 
must  the  dogma  of  such  a  resurrection  be  in- 
sisted on  as  an  article  of  Christian  faith,  and 
a  test  of  theological  orthodoxy,  whether  ob- 
viously taught  in  the  Word  or  not  ?  That 
would  be  simply  clothing  the  theological  sense, 
or  human  interpretation  of  the  Word,  with  all 
the  Divine  authority  of  the  Word  itself;  the 
which  we  are  but  too  prone  to  do.  But  better 
infinitely  let  our  belief  rest  on  the  specific 
teachings  of  the  Word  or  have  less  belief. 
Then  let  us  search  carefully  for  the  Scripture 
teachings  concerning  the  resurrection  of  the 
body.  And  we  will  commence  with  the  fifteenth 
of  Corinthians  ;  for  if  anywhere  in  the  New 
Testament  is  taught  the  resurrection  of  the 
earthly  body,  it  is  in  this  chapter.  The  cor- 
poreal feature  of  the  general  question  of  the 
resurrection  of  the  dead  is  first  specifically 
mentioned  at  the  thirty-fifth  verse.     It  is  in 


92  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

the  form  of  an  anticipated  or  already  uttered 
objection  to  the  general  fact  of  the  rising  of 
the  dead:  "But  some  man  will  say,  How  are. 
the   dead    (vtxfiofy   raised   up  ?   and  with  what 
body  (<rd>/j.a)  do  they  come  ?" 

This  objection  would  very  naturally  arise 
ill  the  minds  both  of  the  materialistic  and 
the  speculatively  philosophical.  And  to  those 
urging  it  this  was  no  doubt  a  very  plausible 
objection,  just  as  it  is  .to  the  same  class  of 
minds  now.  It  rests  upon  the  apparent  fact 
that  death  seems  to  operate  the  entire  destruc- 
tion of  the  body — not  only  its  disorganization, 
but  its  very  particles  are  utterly  dissipated, 
are  lost  in  other  combinations  of  matter,  min- 
eral, vegetable,  and  animal.  But  recently  the 
friends  of  Roger  Williams  went  to  remove  his 
remains  from  their  humble  grave,  but  when 
opened  it  was  found  that  his  body  had  been 
actually  absorbed  by  the  forked  roots  of  an 
apple-tree  which  had  been  planted  near  the 
head  of  his  grave,  and  scarcely  a  single  par- 
ticle of  his  remains  could  be  identified.  To 
minds  not  rising  above  the  merely  material- 
istic view  of  such  facts  there  is  force  in  the 
objection,  How  are  the  dead  raised  up?     How 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   93 

can  they  live  again  after  death?  What  body 
will  they  have  ?  And  if  we  limit  the  whole  fact 
of  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  to  the  future 
raising  up  of  earthly  bodies  thus  absorbed  and 
utterly  lost  in  the  ten  thousand  combinations 
of  matter,  there  are  difficulties  which  can  be 
met  or  overcome  only  by  a  faith  or  belief  which 
takes  refuge  in  a  future  miracle.  But  by  care- 
fully following  Paul's  philosophy  in  answer  to 
this  objection  we  will  see  not  only  the  force 
of  it  broken,  but  all  the  difficulties  which  it 
suggests  dispersed,  and  without  waiting  for 
a  future  miracle.  But  before  considering  his 
great  argument  let  us  pause  here  a  moment 
to  consider  his  use  of  the  terms  dead  and 
body  in  this  verse. 

How  manifest  the  distinction  with  which 
he  uses  the  terms,  and  how  marked  the  dis- 
tinction in  the  meaning  as  he  uses  them ! 
Thus,  "  How  are  the  dead  (of  vexpo!)  raised  up, 
and  with  what  body  (<rd>/za)  do  they  come  ?" 
Now,  can  these  two  terms,  by  any  possible 
rendering  or  exegesis,  be  made  identical  in 
meaning?  Is  it  possible  to  limit  the  dead 
(vexpoi)  to  mean  bodies  ?  Then  the  verse 
would   read,  But   how  are  the   bodies  raised 


94  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

up,  and  with  what  body  do  they  (the  bodies) 
come  ?  which  simply  makes  nonsense.  And 
equally  impossible  is  it  to  fill  the  term  <Tw/ia 
with  the  meaning  of  the  dead.  It  means  sim- 
ply the  corporeal  part  of  the  dead,  just  as  it 
does  when  applied  to  the  living.  Living  men 
or  persons  takes  in  the  whole  idea  of  person- 
ality, while  the  body  simply  means  the  corpo- 
real part  of  the  personality.  Just  so  the  dead 
(<n  vexpot)  takes  in  the  whole  idea  of  personal 
being,  while  aw/ia  is  limited  to  the  corporeality 
of  the  dead.  Can  there  be  any  question  that 
such  is  Paul's  meaning  in  the  use  of  these 
terms  ?  And  in  such  use  he  is  in  harmony 
with  the  uniform  and  general  iisas  loquendi  of 
the  New  Testament,  and  this  verse  is  a  key  to 
the  whole  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  so  far 
as  the  use  of  these  terms  is  concerned.  And 
the  twofold  teaching  of  the  verse  is,  I.  That 
the  dead  do  rise  or  are  raised  ;  2.  That  they 
come  forth  with  bodies  ;  so  that  the  resurrec- 
tion is  not  simply  psychical,  or  the  rising  of 
the  soul,  nor  is  it  simply  corporeal,  or  the 
future  rising  of  the  body  from  the  grave.  But 
we  return  now  to  Paul's  argument  in  answer 
to  this  objection. 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.    95 

I  will  give  the  text  as  translated  by  Lange : 
"  Fool,  that  which  thou  sovvest  is  not  quick- 
ened [made  alive]  except  it  die ;  and  that 
which  thou  so  west,  thou  sowest  not  that  body 
which  shall  be ;  but  bare  grain,  it  may  chance 
of  wheat  or  some  of  the  other  grains.  But 
God  giveth  it  a  body  as  he  willed,  and  to 
every  seed  his  own  body/'  Verses  36-38. 
Of  course,  we  are  to  look  at  this  argument 
first  in  the  light  of  the  natural  facts  here 
stated.  Well  for  us  when  we  come  to  realize 
more  fully  that  the  facts  written  for  us  in 
God's  own  book  of  nature  will  generally  give 
us  a  clearer  and  more  rational  commentary  of 
his  written  Word  than  the  speculations  and 
dogmas  of  men,  especially  when  put  forth  in 
support  of  some  cherished  creed.  What  are 
the  facts  here  stated?  1.  You  sow  in  the 
earth  a  grain  body,  perchance  of  wheat  or 
other  grain.  It  dies,  but  as  it  dies  it  is 
quickened,  or  comes  forth  alive  in  another 
form.  2.  The  body  you  sow  is  not  the  body 
that  rises,  but  a  new  form  is  born  out  of 
its  disorganizing  elements ;  yet,  retaining  the 
identity  of  the  old,  to  every  seed  his  own  body. 
3.  Co-etaneous  with  the  death  of  the  old  is  the 


g6  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

birth  of  the  new  form ;  as  the  one  begins 
to  die  the  other  begins  to  be  made  alive. 
4.  Death  is  not  the  destruction  of  the  life 
of  the  grain  body,  but  the  essential  condition 
of  its  coming  forth  in  another  form.  Are  not 
these  natural  facts  every-where  manifested  in 
the  multiform  and  wonderful  transformations 
constantly  taking  place  in  the  bodily  forms  of 
vegetable  and  insect  life  ?  And  do  not  all 
these  facts  converge  in  the  establishment  of 
one  grand  fact,  that  death  is  not  the  destruc- 
tion, but  the  law  of  transition  in  the  forms 
of  such,  so  that  the  death  of  the  old  is  the 
essential  condition  of  its  rising  in  a  new  form  ? 
What  does  St.  Paul  teach  by  these  facts  ?  Did 
he  simply  mean  in  a  figurative  way  to  tell  some 
man  he  was  a  fool  for  calling  in  question  the 
future  literal  resurrection  of  flesh  and  bones 
from  the  earth  at  the  end  of  the  world  ? 
About  that  is  all  he  is  allowed  to  teach  by 
most  dogmatic  interpreters  of  his  words.  But 
does  he  not  in  reality  teach  us  that  these  nat- 
ural facts  have  their  corresponding,  analogical, 
spiritual  facts  in  the  death  and  quickening  of 
the  human  body,  so  that  the  death  of  the 
body  is  the  essential   condition   of  its  being 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   97 

made  alive  in  another  form  ;  that  the  body  that 
dies  is  not  the  body  that  shall  be,  but  a  body ; 
that  as  the  body  dies  it  is  quickened  or  made 
alive  in  another  form  ?  But,  that  we  may  not 
seem  to  overstrain  the  points  of  the  analogy, 
let  us  get  at  the  one  strong,  clear  point  in  this 
answer  to  this  objection  to  the  resurrection  of 
the  dead.  Is  it  not  this — that  death  is  not 
the  destruction  of  the  body,  but  the  established 
law  and  essential  condition  of  its  transition  to 
a  JiigJicr,  more  heavenly,  and  spiritual  form  ? 
Except  it  die  it  is  not  quickened.  So  far, 
then,  from  death  being  an  objection  to  the 
rising  of  the  dead,  it  is  but  the  essential  con- 
dition of  their  being  unclothed  of  their  earthly 
body,  and  of  being  clothed  upon  of  their  spir- 
itual body,  just  suited  to  their  begun  life  in 
the  spiritual  world,  and  in  which  they  rise  to 
the  higher  heavens  as  they  attain  to  the  full- 
ness of  the  resurrection  and  the  life.  That 
such  is  the  philosophy  of  Paul's  answer  to 
this  objection  may  be  seen  still  more  clearly 
at  verses  42-44 :  "  So  also  is  the  resurrection 
of  the  dead.  It  is  sown  in  corruption,  it  is 
raised  in  incorruption:  it  is  sown  in  dishonor, 
it  is  raised  in  glory:  it  is  sown  in  weakness, 


98  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

it  is  raised  in  power:  it  is  sown  a  natural 
body,  it  is  raised  a  spiritual  body.  There  is 
a  natural  body,  and  there  is  a  spiritual  body." 
The  teaching  of  these  verses  concerning  the 
resurrection  of  the  body  is  very  full  and  ex- 
ceedingly suggestive  ;  more  so,  perhaps,  than 
any  other  passage  in  the  New  Testament. 
They  indicate  the  time,  the  order  or  manner  of 
the  quickening,  and  the  essential  difference  be- 
tween the  substantial  quality  and  glory  of  the 
risen  body  over  that  of  the  earthly  from  which 
it  is  born  or  quickened  ;  and  if  anywhere  in 
the  New  Testament  the  future  rising  from  the 
earth  of  the  earthly  body  is  taught,  it  is  in 
these  verses.  And  the  whole  question  must  be 
determined  by  the  obvious,  unforced,  unwarped 
meaning  of  the  antithetical  phrases  "  it  is  sown" 
"  it  is  raised!'  That  it,  throughout  these  verses, 
refers  to  the  earthly  body,  and  is  immediately 
linked  with  the  a&iLa  of  verse  35,  no  one  will 
question.  And  that  "  is  sown  "  and  "  is  raised  " 
relate  directly  to  the  dissolution  and  quicken- 
ing, or  "  making  alive,"  of  the  earthly  body  is 
equally  certain  and  unquestionable.  What 
then  is  obviously  meant  by  "  it  is  sown"  as 
predicated   of  the  body?     Does   it  mean   its 


THE   RESURRECTION    OF   THE   DEAD.        99 

burial  in  the  earth,  its  decomposition,  its 
mingling  again  with  the  dust  until  the  last 
day  ?  Does  it  take  in  all  this  process,  reach- 
ing through  all  this  long,  long  lapse  of  time 
between  the  death  of  the  body  and  the  last 
day  ?  And  is  this  its  specific  and  only  mean- 
ing, so  that  no  other  meaning  can  be  ex- 
pressed ?  "//  is  raised!'  Does  this  mean  that 
in  the  future,  at  the  last  day,  the  dust  particles 
of  the  earthly  body  will  be  gathered  again  and 
raised  from  the  grave  ?  And  is  this  its  specific 
and  only  meaning  ?  Then  the  inquiry  is  set- 
tled ;  the  future  rising  of  the  earthly  body  from 
the  grave  is  taught  in  the  New  Testament,  and 
must  be  accepted  as  an  article  of  faith.  But 
is  this  so  ?  Is  such  the  specific,  obvious,  and 
only  meaning  of  these  important  phrases,  or 
do  they  express  any  such  meaning  at  all  ? 

1.  The  verbal  construction  of  the  letter  of 
the  text  expresses  no  such  meaning,  nor  can 
such  meaning  be  obtained  therefrom  without 
changing  the  verbal  construction.  Thus  it  is 
sown,  it  is  raised  ;  but  to  express  the  meaning 
of  a  future  rising  long  after  death,  it  needs  to 
read  thus :  it  is  sown,  it  will  be  raised  ;  it  is 
sown  a  natural  body,  it  will  be  raised  a  spir- 

OF  THc  > 


UN\\ 


SJTY 


IOO  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

itual  body ;  there  is  a  natural  body,  there  will 
be  a  spiritual  body.  But  the  text  is,  it  is  sown, 
it  is  raised  ;  there  is  a  natural  body,  there  is  a 
spiritual  body,  present  tense,  which  obviously 
links  the  fact  of  the  sowing  and  the  rising  of 
the  natural  and  the  spiritual  body  closely  to- 
gether in  point  of  time  ;  for  it  will  not  do  to 
assume  that  the  present  tense  on  the  one 
side  is  used  figuratively  or  rhetorically  for  the 
future,  because  the  present  tense  is  uniformly 
used  by  Paul  throughout  this  chapter;  thus, 
"  How  say  some  among  you  that  there  is  no 
resurrection  ?  But  if  there  be  no  resurrection." 
If  this  be  claimed  as  subjunctive  future,  refer- 
ring to  the  resu'rrection  as  an  event  of  the  fut- 
ure, then  it  must  be  the  same  in  the  next  verse, 
"  And  if  Christ  be  not  risen."  The  tense  is  the 
same  in  each.  Why  should  one  be  claimed  as 
present  and  the  other  future  ?  Again,  "  Whom 
he  raised  not  up  if  so  be  that  the  dead  rise 
not."  "For  if  the  dead  rise  not,  then  is  not 
Christ  raised."  "  What  advantageth  it  me  if 
the  dead  rise  not  ?"  "  How  are  the  dead  raised 
up;  with  what  body  do  they  come?"  It  is 
sown,  it  is  raised  ;  there  is  a  natural  body,  there 
is  a  spiritual  body.    The  only  exception  in  this 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   IOI 

chapter  where  the  present  tense  is  not  used  is 
verse  52,  where  he  says,  "And  the  dead  shall 
be  raised  incorruptible."  This  refers  to  the 
dead  in  Christ  who  still  remain  in  hades  at  the 
coming  of  Christ,  and  will  attain  the  resurrec- 
tion just  before  those  then  living  are  changed. 
And  not  only  in  this  chapter  is  this  order  ob- 
served in  the  letter  of  the  Word.  Thus,  Mark 
says,  as  touching  the  dead,  that  "they  rise" 
"  Now  that  the  dead  are  raised"  Luke  xx,  37; 
"  As  the  Father  raiseth  up  the  dead,"  John  v, 
21;"  But  in  God  which  raiseth  the  dead,"  2 
Cor.  i,  9. 

Now  it  certainly  can  not  be  claimed  that  in 
all  these  texts  the  present  tense  is  used  rhe- 
torically with  a  future  significance.  And  to 
make  the  New  Testament  teach  that  the  resur- 
rection is  to  be  a  fact  wholly  of  the  future,  it 
would  be  necessary  to  change  the  grammatical 
construction  and  sense  of  a  majority  of  the 
texts  in  which  the  fact  is  stated.  The  key  to 
this  use  of  the  present  and  future  tense,  this 
referring  to  the  resurrection  as  a  fact  of  the 
present  and  also  of  the  future,  this  saying  that 
the  dead  risey  are  raised,  and  that  the  dead 
shall  be  raised  at  the  end  of  the  age  or  coming 


102  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

of  Christ,  is  found  in  the  twenty-third  verse 
of  this  fifteenth  chapter:  "But  every  man  in 
his  own  order!' 

Manifestly  then  these  verses  do  not  obvi- 
ously teach  in  their  letter  that  the  rising  of 
the  body  is  to  be  an  event  long  future,  centuries 
after  the  sowing.  No  such  idea  is  even  hinted 
at.  But  they  do  obviously  and  explicitly  teach 
that  it  is  raised.  Moreover,  such  meaning  does 
violence  to  the  essential  idea  of  Paul's  analog- 
ical illustration,  which  is  that  as  the  body  dies 
it  is  raised  or  made  alive  in  a  new  form  of  cor- 
poreal life.  Thus,  "  it  is  sotvn"  is  obviously 
linked  with  the  sowing  of  the  grain  body  in 
verses  36,  37.  As  the  grain  body  is  sown  and 
dies,  it  is  quickened,  made  alive ;  so  as  the 
earthly  body  is  sown  it  is  raised.  But  where 
are  the  obvious  points  of  analogy?  and  what 
are  the  spiritual  facts  connected  with  the  resur- 
rection of  the  earthly  body,  which  correspond 
with  the  sowing  and  quickening  of  the  grain 
body  ?  Must  they  be  looked  for  in  the  burial 
of  the  body  in  the  grave,  in  its  decomposition, 
and  the  future  gathering  again  of  its  dissipated 
particles,  and  their  transformation  into  a  spir- 
itual  body  ?      But   what   correspondence   can 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   103 

there  be  between  the  sowing  of  the  grain  body 
in  the  earth  and  the  burying  of  a  dead  body  in 
the  grave  ?  The  grain  body  is  a  living  body  ; 
it  contains  within  its  womb  the  germinal  ele- 
ments of  a  new  form  of  corporeal  organism  and 
an  operative  life  principle,  ready,  of  its  own 
dynamic  power,  to  mold  these  germinal  ele- 
ments into  a  new  body  as  the  old  dies.  How 
this  is  done,  or  just  what  that  life  principle  is, 
we  can  not  tell.  But  the  fact  we  do  know.  It 
is  taught  us  by  every  grain  that  dies  in  the 
earth  and  every  new  form  of  life  which  springs 
up  from  its  womb.  But  the  human  earthly  body 
is  dead ;  decomposition  has  commenced  ;  not 
even  a  germinal  element  of  life  remains,  nor  a 
possible  principle  of  life.  Its  decomposing 
particles  are  at  the  mercy  of  the  dynamic  forces 
of  the  life  principles  of  other  forms  of  life,  and 
are  soon  taken  up  and  appropriated  by  these 
into  the  corporeal  organisms  of  vegetables,  and 
animals,  and  men,  unless  indeed  it  be  true 
that  an  impalpable  germ,  or  mysterious  life 
principle,  somehow  inheres  or  remains  in  the 
dissipated  particles  of  the  disorganized  earthly 
body  through  all  their  changes  and  transfor- 
mations, and  will  eventually  combine  them  in 


104  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

a  resurrected  body.  But  such  a  notion  is  true 
neither  according  to  the  teachings  of  reason, 
science,  common  sense,  nor  the  Word  of  God. 
Then  there  is  no  correspondence  in  fact  what- 
ever between  the  sowing  in  the  earth  of  a  liv- 
ing grain  body,  and  the  burial  in  the  grave  of 
an  earthly  body,  dead  and  dissolving  before  it 
is  buried.  The  body,  then,  can  fitly  correspond 
only  with  the  hulls  of  the  grain  body  after  it 
has  been  quickened. 

Again :  sowing  in  the  earth  pertains  to  the 
grain  body,  because  it  is  the  essential  con- 
dition of  its  death  and  quickening;  otherwise 
it  would  remain  alone.  But  can  this  be  true 
of  the  earthly  body?  Do  its  organic  laws 
of  death  and  life  require  that  the  decomposing 
mass  should  be  planted  in  the  earth,  that  cen- 
turies after  it  may  vegetate  into  a  spiritual 
body?  Might  we  not  rather  expect  stalks 
of  wheat  or  barley,  and  full-grown  ears,  from 
the  sowing  in  the  earth  of  the  old  hulls  of 
grain  bodies  after  they  have  died  and  been 
quickened  ?  But  it  may  be  urged  that  the 
future  rising  of  the  body  from  the  grave  does 
not  depend  upon  the  conditions  or  laws  of  or- 
ganic  life,  but  will  be   accomplished   by  the 


THE   RESURRECTION    OF   THE   DEAD.      105 

miraculous  power  of  God.    Hath  he  not  power 
to  do  it  ? 

But  where  has  he  ever  said  he  would  put 
forth  such  power,  or  that  he  would  ever  per- 
form such  a  miracle  as  that?  And  what  au- 
thority have  we  for  putting  the  rising  of  the 
body  in  the  category  of  miracles  ?  What  au- 
thority in  reason,  Revelation,  or  consciousness, 
for  teaching  that  he  will  thus  operate,  in  dis- 
regard of  the  organic  laws  of  life  in  the  human 
body,  even  in  its  resurrection,  any  more  than 
he  does  in  the  resurrection  of  the  grain  body  ? 
Moreover,  in  the  supposed  fact  of  the  future 
resurrection  of  the  body,  centuries  after  it  is 
sown,  there  is  no  correspondence  in  fact  with 
the  sowing  and  making  alive  of  the  grain 
body.  In  it  these  are  co-etaneous — the  mo- 
ment it  begins  to  die  the  inner  life  principle 
begins  to  quicken  and  take  hold  on  the  germs 
it  will  use  in  constructing  its  new  form  of  cor- 
poreal organism.  And  as  the  death  and  dis- 
solving of  the  old  body  progresses,  so  does  the 
making  alive  in  the  new  form  assume  organic 
shape.  And  as  the  old  loses  its  identity,  and 
disappears,  up  rises  the  new,  and  to  each  grain 

his  own  body,     Now,  is  it  not  plain  and  ob- 
8 


106  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

vious  enough  that  the  essential  points  of  anal- 
ogy, or  correspondence,  in  this  teaching  of 
Paul,  are  to  be  found  between  the  death  and 
making  alive  of  the  grain  body  and  the  death 
and  rising  of  the  earthly  body?  Thus  it  is 
sown  in  death,  in  corruption  or  corrupting ;  it 
is  raised  or  quickened,  made  alive,  incorrupt- 
ible ;  it  dies  in  dishonor,  dishonored  by  the 
dominion  and  pollutions  of  sin ;  it  dies  in 
weakness,  from  diseases  and  sufferings  ;  it  dies 
a  natural,  an  animal  body  of  gross  matter,  flesh 
and  bones ;  it  is  raised  in  honor,  in  power ;  it 
is  raised  a  spiritual  body.  Thus  there  is  a 
dying  animal  body :  there  is  a  rising,  spiritual, 
incorruptible,  immortal,  glorious  body.  Thus 
the  distinct,  obvious  points,  brought  out  by 
Paul  are  these  :  1st.  As  the  grain  body  is  sown 
and  dies,  so  is  the  body  sown  in  death.  2d. 
As  the  grain  body  that  dies  is  quickened  or 
made  alive,  so  is  the  body  raised.  3d.  As 
with  the  grain  body,  not  that  body  is  sown 
which  shall  be;  so  the  body  that  dies  is  not 
the  body  that  rises,  but  an  immortal,  glorious, 
spiritual  body — ^orn,  so  to  speak,  out  of  the 
earthly,  deriving  its  organic  elements  there- 
from, and  perfectly  preserving  its  identity. 


THE    RESURRECTION    OF   THE    DEAD.      107 

But  to  this  view  of  the  text  it  may  be  ob- 
jected that  "sown,"  derived  from  the  Greek 
(Txzifju),  is  never  used  in  the  New  Testament  in 
the  sense  of  death  or  dying.  True  ;  and  neither 
is  it  ever  used  in  the  sense  of  bury  or  burial. 
Hence  the  question  is,  which  of  these  mean- 
ings is  most  in  harmony  with  the  obvious 
sense  of  the  text,  and  with  the  corresponding 
facts  of  Paul's  analogical  argument?  To  my 
mind  at  least  the  real  analogue  is  between  the 
dying  and  quickening  of  the  grain  body  and 
the  dying  and  raising  of  the  earthly  body. 
And  if  any  fault  there  be  in  this  view  it  is  in 
limiting  the  sowing  of  the  body  to  the  hour  or 
day  in  which  it  dies  ;  for,  in  fact,  the  earthly 
body  is  in  the  correspondent  state  of  the  grain 
body  in  the  earth,  during  all  the  time  of  the 
earthly  life.  It  may  be  said  the  body  is  sown 
when  it  is  born  into  its  state  of  mortal  exist- 
ence. Like  the  grain  body  in  the  earth  it  is 
really  dying  during  all  its  earthly  existence ; 
so  that  the  article  of  death  is  but  the  end 
of  the  mortal  state,  or  dissolution  process, 
which  precedes  the  rising  of  the  immortal 
spiritual  body.  But  let  us  not  forget  that  our 
main  inquiry  just  now  is  not  a  question  of 


108  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

words  or  interpretation  of  words.  But  does 
Paul  in  this  chapter  explicitly  teach  the  future 
resurrection  from  the  grave  of  the  earthly 
body  ?  Is  such  the  teaching  of  these  verses  ? 
Do  they  obviously  and  explicitly  teach  that 
the  very  earthly  body,  or  its  material  particles, 
are  at  the  last  day  to  be  gathered  again,  and 
raised  an  immortal,  glorious  spiritual  body,  or 
do  they  teach  any  thing  whatever  concerning 
the  future  resurrection  of  the  earthly  body  ? 


CHAPTER  VI. 

ST.   PAUL'S  ARGUMENT— CONTINUED. 

"And  so  it  is  written,  The  first  man,  Adam,  became  a 
living  soul — the  last  Adam  a  quickening  (life-giving)  spirit. 
Howbeit,  that  was  not  first  which  was  spiritual,  but  that 
which  is  natural  (animal),  and  afterward  that  which  is  spirit- 
ual. The  first  man  was  of  the  earth,  earthy;  the  second 
man  is  from  heaven.  As  was  the  earthy,  such  are  they,  also, 
that  are  earthy ;  and  as  is  the  heavenly,  such  are  they,  also, 
that  are  heavenly.  And  as  we  have  borne  the  image  of  the 
earthy,  we  will  wear  (or  let  us  wear)  the  image  of  the  heav- 
enly. Now  this  I  say,  brethren,  that  flesh  and  blood  can  not 
inherit  the  kingdom  of  God ;  neither  doth  corruption  inherit 
incorruption."     I  Cor.  XV,  45-50,  Langis  text. 

TO  a  superficial  view  the  bearing  of  this 
passage  upon  the  resurrection  of  the 
body  may  not  appear.  J3ut  a  careful  study  of 
it  in  immediate  connection  with  the  passages 
already  considered,  will  not  fail  to  discover 
that  its  teaching  is  very  direct  and  explicit  in 
that  direction.  The  author  first  introduces 
the  two  Adams — the  original  parents  of  our 
twofold    humanity — the   earthly,   natural,   and 

109 


IIO  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

the  heavenly,  spiritual.  The  general  relation 
of  these  two  Adams  to  our  humanity  is  more 
fully  indicated  by  the  author  in  Romans  ch.  v. 
His  teaching  here  is  that  the  first  Adam  was 
made,  or  became  a  living  soul ;  but  was  of  the 
earth,  earthy,  natural,  animal.  The  last  Adam 
was  from  heaven,  a  quickening,  or  life-giving 
spirit.  The  first  Adam  became  a  living  soul 
only  through  the  reception  of  the  inbreathed 
Divine  life,  Gen.  xi,  7.  And  had  he  continued 
in  living,  receptive  union  with  God,  he  and 
his  race  would  have  attained  eventually  unto 
the  fullness  of  immortality  and  Divine  spir- 
itual glorification,  soul  and  body.  But  this 
union  being  severed,  he  became  the  head,  or 
parent,  of  a  humanity  merely  natural,  animal, 
earthly,  and  subject  to  sin  and  death.  Such 
is  our  humanity  without  God.  To  lift  it  from 
this  low  plane  of  earthiness  and  animality,  of 
sin  and  death,  up  to  the  actual  realization  of 
spiritual,  Divine  life,  and  glorification  of  both 
soul  and  body,  comes  the  last  Adam,  the 
second  man,  the  Divine  human  Christ,  as  the 
head  or  parent  of  the  new  humanity.  Not  as 
the  first,  merely  a  life-receiving  soul,  but  a 
life-giving  spirit,  the  Divine  life-giver,  having 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   Ill 

in  himself  the  perfect  and  perpetual  union  of 
the  Divine  and  human,  and  "power  continually 
to  beget  this  divine,  spiritual  life,  in  others ;" 
"so  that  as  the  second  Adam  he  becomes  the 
representative  and  head  of  a  humanity,  spirit- 
ually and  divinely  glorified,  by  virtue  of  hav- 
ing glorified  human  nature  in  himself  by  the 
power  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  in  a  life  of  sin- 
less purity,  and  his  resurrection  triumph  over 
death."  Thus  "  he  became  henceforth,  in  his 
newly  quickened  and  glorified  corporeity,  the 
Divine  organ  for  that  life  renewal,  that  quick- 
ening of  the  dead,  which  reaches  its  ultimate 
realization  in  the  quickening  or  raising  of  the 
body." 

Thus,  according  to  Paul's  teaching,  we  are 
to  accept  Christ  as  the  second  Adam,  as  the 
divine,  life-giving  power  in  our  humanity,  not 
only  as  having  glorified  and  raised  to  the 
fullness  of  divine,  spiritual  life  the  Adam 
humanity  as  assumed  by  himself,  but  as  act- 
ually imparting  to  us  and  exerting  in  us  this 
life-giving  power.  Now,  the  question  is,  does 
this  quickening,  divine  life-power*  extend  to 
the  earthly  body?  Does  the  author  in  this 
teaching    include    the    fact    of    the    spiritual 


112  SUGGESTIVE   INQUIRIES. 

quickening  and  glorification  of  the  earthly 
body?  That  he  certainly  does  directly  refer 
to  the  body  in  this  connection  is  manifest. 
To  what  else  can  he  refer  by  the  "  image  of 
the  earthly,"  "corruption,"  " flesh  and  blood?" 
And  by  changing  the  image  of  the  earthly  for 
the  image  of  the  heavenly,  and  inheriting  or 
entering  the  kingdom  of  God  in  incorruption, 
what  can  be  meant  but  the  spiritual  glorifica- 
tion of  the  body  ?  And  by  the  "  image  of  the 
heavenly,"  "  incorruption,"  what  can  be  meant, 
but  the  glorified  spiritual  body?  To  my  per- 
ception, at  least,  it  is  very  clear  that  Paul  both 
teaches  the  glorification  of  the  body  and  that 
it  is  to  be  quickened  and  glorified  through  the 
divine,  life-giving  power  of  Christ.  A  most 
vital  fact  is  this,  underlying  the  whole  ques- 
tion of  the  future  life  of  the  body.  And  this 
fact  is  overlooked  by  every  theory  of  the  res- 
urrection of  the  body  which  I  have  ever  exam- 
ined ;  and  in  this  is  found  the  fatal  defect  in 
the  two  leading  theories,  the  psychical  and 
the  literal,  material.  The  one  seems  to  over- 
look entirely  the  fact  of  the  glorification  of 
the  body,  and  seems  to  see  only  the  rising  at 
death  of  a  body,  a  psychical  or  spiritual  body 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   II3 

which  has  in  some  way  inter-existed  in  the 
earthly.  It  allows  the  natural  body  no  part 
in  the  resurrection  at  all.  But  such  does  not 
seem  to  be  Paul's  philosophy.  His  idea  seems 
to  be  that  it  is  in  some  sense  the  earthly  body 
that  is  raised.  //  is  sown,  it  is  raised,  so  that 
the  immortal,  spiritual  body  is  no  more  an- 
other body,  absolutely  distinct  from  the  nat- 
ural, than  is  the  regenerate,  sanctified  soul 
another  soul,  absolutely  distinct  from  the  nat- 
ural soul.  Somehow  the  one  is  born  out  of 
the  other.  How  this  is  we  can  no  more  tell  in 
the  one  than  in  the  other.  The  fact  is  all  we 
have  to  do  with.  The  other  can  see  a  bodily 
resurrection  in  nothing  that  does  not  in  some 
way  operate  the  gathering  up  of  the  dust  of 
dead  bodies  from  the  earth.  It  does  allow, 
indeed,  that  Christ  may  have  somewhat  to  do 
with  the  quickening  of  the  body,  but  it  can 
only  be  by  exercising  his  miraculous  power 
in  gathering  up  its  dust  particles  at  the  end 
of  the  world.  It  denies  that  he  can  have 
any  thing  to  do  with  it  before  death,  or  at 
death,  or  soon  after  death.  It  seems  to  have 
no  perception  of  the  fact  that  the  indwelling 
divine  life-power  can  or  does  reach  even  to  the 


114  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

mortal  body,  imparting  to  it  the  embryo  of  its 
new,  immortal,  spiritual  form.  It  denies  the 
possibility  of  death  being  but  the  birth  of  a 
higher  form  of  corporeal  life.  It  insists  on 
leaving  the  body  under  the  absolute  dominion 
of  death  for  ages  before  it  can  have  a  resur- 
rection. But  such  is  not  St.  Paul's  philoso- 
phy. His  idea  is  that  the  divine,  life-giving 
power  of  the  indwelling  Christ  does  operate 
the  glorification  of  our  humanity,  both  soul 
and  body.  This  was  truly  so  of  the  Adam 
humanity  as  personally  represented  in  Christ. 
In  him  that  humanity  was  divinely  glorified, 
soul  and  body,  and  it  was  only  through  such 
glorification  that  he  became  the  divine  life- 
power  to  raise  that  humanity  in  us  out  of  its 
fallen  state.  Now,  that  Christ  as  the  life-giv- 
ing spirit  does,  through  spiritual  regeneration, 
beget  in  the  natural  soul  the  new,  divine  life, 
called  elsewhere  by  Paul  the  "new  man,"  the 
"inner  man,"  the  "spiritual  man,"  is  perceived 
and  believed  by  the  Christian  mind  generally. 
But  why  is  it  not  perceived  that  thi§  new  man 
in  Christ  Jesus,  this  new  spiritual  humanity, 
must  include  both  the  idea  and  actuality  of  a 
body?    Must  not  the  regenerate  spiritual  man 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   115 

in  Christ,  the  second  Adam,  have  a  spiritual 
body  as  truly  as  that  the  old,  natural  man  in 
Adam  has  a  material,  earthly  body,  so  that 
spiritual  regeneration  as  truly  includes  the 
fact  of  a  spiritual  body  as  that  natural  gener- 
ation includes  the  fact  of  a  material,  natural 
body  ?  And  must  it  not  be  true  that  this  spir- 
itual body  does  in  some  sense  find  its  embryo 
within  the  natural  body,  so  that  it  is  first  that 
which  is  natural,  afterward  that  which  is  spir- 
itual ?  Then  we  may  safely  assume  that  the 
life-giving  spirit  does  extend  in  its  regenerat- 
ing power  even  to  the  mortal,  natural  body. 
That  this  is  St.  Paul's  idea  seems  to  be  very 
clearly  indicated  at  Romans  viii,  10,  II. 

Next  we  may  inquire  as  to  the  time  and 
order  of  this  quickening  or  making  alive  of 
the  mortal  body.  Is  it  to  be  accomplished  in 
no  other  way  than  by  the  miraculous  gather- 
ing again  of  the  earthly  dust  at  the  end  of 
time  and  fashioning  of  it  into  a  spiritual  body 
suddenly,  without  regard  to  the  laws  of  either 
natural,  psychical,  or  spiritual  life  ?  Come 
from  where  it  may,  sustained  by  whom  it 
may  be,  such  a  conception  of  the  quickening 
and  future  life  of  the  body  can  not  be  found 


Il6  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

in  the  teachings  of  St.  Paul  or  of  the  whole 
New  Testament.  Paul's  teaching  manifestly 
is  that  it  is  by  or  because  of  his  Spirit  which 
dwelleth  in  you  that  the  mortal  body  is  made 
alive.  It  is  by  the  begetting  or  implanting 
within  it  the  germ  principle  or  embryo  of  its 
new,  immortal,  heavenly  form,  so  that  the 
death  of  the  old  becomes  but  the  full  condi- 
tion of  the  birth  of  the  new. 

This  conception  is  thus  finely  stated  by  a 
modern  commentator.  Speaking  of  the  death 
and  corruption  of  vegetable  bodies  as  the  con- 
ditions of  new  forms  of  life,  he  says :  "  Essen- 
tially the  same  process  occurs  in  the  resur- 
rection of  the  dead.  Corruption  is  only  the 
dissolution  of  that  which  was  the  result  of  a 
previous  vital  development,  in  order  that  the 
germ  of  a  new  body  which  was  included  in  the 
inmost  kernel  of  the  old,  may  break  forth  and 
unfold  itself  into  a  new  and  living  organism." 
So  that  the  death  and  dissolution  of  the  earthly 
body  are  but  upward  steps  in  the  regenerate 
order  of  man's  corporeal  life.  It  is  being 
changed  from  the  image  of  the  earthly  natural 
into  the  image  of  the  heavenly  spiritual — from 
corruption   into   incorruption.     It  is  a  giving 


THE    RESURRECTION    OF    THE    DEAD.      II7 

back  to  the  kingdom  of  matter  the  flesh,  bones, 
blood,  and  other  elements  which  evermore  be- 
long to  it,  and  which  can  not  enter  into  the 
kingdom  of  God.  "  Now  this  I  say,  brethren, 
that  flesh  and  blood  can  not  inherit  the  king- 
dom of  God:  neither  doth  corruption  inherit 
incorruption.  Behold  I  shew  you  a  mystery : 
we  shall  not  all  sleep,  but  we  shall  all  be 
changed,  in  a  moment,  in  the  twinkling  of  an 
eye,  at  the  last  trump,  for  the  trumpet  shall 
sound,  and  the  dead  shall  be  raised  incorrupti- 
ble, and  we  shall  be  changed.  For  this  cor- 
ruptible must  put  on  incorruption,  and  this 
mortal  must  put  on  immortality.  So  when 
this  corruptible  shall  have  put  on  incorruption, 
and  this  mortal  shall  have  put  on  immortality, 
then  shall  be  brought  to  pass  the  saying  that 
is  written,  Death  is  swallowed  up  in  victory. 
O  death,  where  is  thy  sting  ?  O  grave,  where 
is  thy  victory  ?" 

Once  more.  The  teaching  in  these  verses 
is  concerning  the  bodily  state  of  those  who 
should  be  alive  on  the  earth  at  the  end  of  the 
age  and  full  revelation  of  the  Lord,  and  final 
consummation  of  the  rising  of  the  dead  in 
Christ  from  hades.     They  of  course  would  not 


Il8  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

attain  to  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  because 
they  would  not  die.  The  consummation  will 
come  upon  them  finding  them  still  in  the  image 
of  the  earthy — still  abiding  in  the  earthly 
house.  What  shall  they  do  ?  In  verse  50, 
Paul  teaches  very  clearly  Xh^t  flesh  and  blood 
(the  earthly  body)  can  not  enter  the  kingdom 
of  God.  That  is,  the  spiritual,  heavenly,  glo- 
rious state  on  which  redeemed  humanity  is  to 
fully  enter  at  the  coming  of  the  Lord  and  after 
the  general  resurrection.  That  is  a  state  for 
which  the  earthly  body  is  wholly  unsuited. 
Corruption  can  not  inherit  incorruption,  verse 
50 ;  that  is,  a  state  of  incorruptible  everlasting 
life  to  which  mortal  corporeality  can  not  rise. 
All  who  have  reached  that  state  are  the  chil- 
dren of  the  resurrection.  They  have  been 
raised  from  the  earthly  into  the  spiritual,  have 
dropped  the  image  of  the  earthy  and  have 
risen  in  the  image  of  the  heavenly.  Then 
what  shall  we  do  who  are  in  the  earthly  ?  "  Be- 
hold, I  shew  you  a  mystery ;  we  shall  not  all 
sleep  (or  die),  but  we  shall  all  be  changed!' 
We  who  shall  be  alive  will  not  attain  to  the 
image  of  the  heavenly  by  having  the  earthly 
put  off  through  death,  but  we  shall  be  changed 


THE   RESURRECTION    OF   THE   DEAD.      I  1 9 

suddenly  ;  this  corruptible,  this  mortal,  shall 
fitt  on  incorruption,  and  this  mortal  immor- 
tality ;  so  we  shall  enter  the  kingdom  of  God, 
the  glorified  heavenly  state,  the  New  Jerusa- 
lem, with  the  dead  who  shall  be  raised  incor- 
ruptible in  the  spiritual  bodies,  the  heavenly, 
with  which  they  were  clothed  upon  at  death. 
Then,  ivJicn  this  corruptible  has  put  on  incor- 
ruption, this  mortal  immortality ;  when  we 
who  are  alive  at  his  coming  have  dropped 
the  image  of  the  earthly  and  been  clothed  in 
the  heavenly ;  when  the  dead  are  raised  in  the 
same  incorruptible  bodies  from  hades,  then 
shall  rise  that  triumphant  shout  from  the  whole 
redeemed  humanity,  O  death,  where  thy  sting? 
O  hades,  where  thy  victory  ? 

But  not  losing  sight  of  our  main  inquiry,  let 
us  consider  what  these  passages  last  examined 
teach  concerning  the  future  resurrection  of  the 
flesh.  If  anywhere  in  these  verses  the  future 
resurrection  of  the  body  is  taught  it  must  be 
in  verse  52,  "the  dead  shall  be  raised  incor- 
ruptible." For,  manifestly  the  teaching  else- 
where is  concerning  those  who  should  be  alive 
at  the  trump  sounding.  And  just  what  is 
taught  in  this  verse  must  depend   upon   the 


120  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

meaning  of  the  dead.  Must  we  allow  to  ol 
vexpot  its  uniform  New  Testament  meaning,  or 
must  we  limit  it  to  mean  the  bodies  of  the 
dead,  so  that  it  would  read,  "  and  the  bodies,  or 
dead  bodies,  shall  be  raised  incorruptible  ?" 
Inquiry  may  be  assisted  here  by  a  parallel 
passage  in  which  Paul  substantially  restates 
the  very  same  thing,  i  Thess.  iv,  14,  15  :  "  For 
if  we  believe  that  Jesus  died  and  rose  again, 
even  so  them  which  sleep  in  Jesus  will  God 
bring  with  liim.  For  this  we  say  unto  you  by 
the  word  of  the  Lord,  that  we  which  are  alive 
and  remain  at  the  coming  of  the  Lord  shall  not 
prevent  them  which  are  asleep,  ....  and  the 
dead  in  Christ  shall  rise  first."  Now  of  whom 
or  of  what  does  Paul  speak  ?  Who  or  what 
is  meant  by  them,  the  dead  in  Christ  ?  etc. 
Does  Paul  mean  the  earthly  bodies  of  the 
dead  ?  Is  it  as  though  he  should  say,  "  Even 
so  the  dead  bodies  which  sleep  in  Jesus  will 
God  bring  with  him ;  we  which  are  alive  shall 
not  prevent  the  dead  bodies  which  sleep  in 
Jesus  ;  and  the  dead  bodies  in  Christ  shall  rise 
first,  and  the  dead  bodies  shall  be  raised  incor- 
ruptible." What  can  be  meant  by  God  bring- 
ing dead  bodies  with  him  when  he  comes  to 


THE    RESURRECTION    OF    THE    DEAD.      121 

raise  the  dead  and  change  the  living  ?  From 
whence  would  he  bring  them  ?  Now  is  it  not 
manifest  that  to  fill  the  term  dead  in  these 
texts  with  the  meaning  of  awpa,  or  body,  de- 
stroys their  meaning?  But  allow  it  its  true, 
full  New  Testament  meaning,  and  the  teach- 
ing is  plain  enough.  At  the  coming  of  Christ 
at  the  time  of  the  great  awakening  to  life  and 
immortality,  the  dead  in  Christ  will  be  raised 
from  hades  in  persona  propria,  incorruptible  in 
the  spiritual  bodies  with  which  they  were 
clothed  at  death  suited  to  their  individual  state 
or  development  in  spiritual  life  as  they  entered 
the  place  of  the  dead.  And  the  living  (in 
Christ)  shall  be  changed,  clothed  upon  with 
the  same  spiritual,  incorruptible  corporeity 
through  the  sudden  operation  of  the  quicken- 
ing spirit  of  Christ ;  and  together  they  shall 
enter  the  new  order,  the  heavenly  state  of  the 
redeemed  humanity. 

Now,  however  it  may  seem  to  you — to  my 
perception  there  is  nothing  in  the  letter  or 
spirit — in  a  single  verse  or  the  continued  con- 
nection of  this  most  grand  argument,  which 
teaches  the  future  resurrection  of  the  flesh ; 
that  is,  of  any  portions  or  particles  of  the 
9 


122  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

earthly  body  which,  after  death,  enter  into  the 
general  circulation  of  matter.  But  concerning 
the  resurrection  of  the  body  it  teaches  me  that 
in  this  earthy  state  is  implanted  within  the 
mortal  body,  by  the  regenerative  operation  of 
"  the  life-giving  spirit,"  the  germ  of  its  new 
immortal,  spiritual,  and  heavenly  life  and  im- 
age, so  that  death  is  but  the  condition  in  the 
order  of  developing  life  through  which  the 
body  rises  to  its  new  and  higher  order  of  im- 
mortal, spiritual  life,  so  that  the  dying  person, 
whatever  his  state  of  regenerate  spiritual  life, 
is  clothed  upon  at  death  with  a  spiritual  body, 
born  out  of  the  earthy,  and  just  suited  to  the 
state  of  existence  on  which  he  enters  in  hades, 
and  in  which  he  will  rise  from  the  dead  when 
he  attains  to  the  resurrection  and  the  life  in 
Jesus.  And  such  a  view  of  the  resurrection  is 
to  me  a  very  glorious  one. 

It  may  be  well  to  consider  in  this  connec- 
tion the  more  detached  portions  of  the  Word 
in  which  the  <rajf±a,  or  body,  is  mentioned — 
whether  they  will  harmonize  with  the  teaching 
of  this  chapter.  At  Romans  viii,  n,  we  read: 
"  But  if  the  Spirit  of  Him  that  raised  up  Jesus 
from  the  dead  dwell  in  you,  he  that  raised  up 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   123 

Christ  from  the  dead  shall  also  quicken  (or 
make  alive)  your  mortal  bodies  by  (or  because 
of)  his  Spirit,  which  dwelleth  in  you."  This 
passage  is  generally  understood  to  have  direct 
reference  to  the  resurrection  of  the  body.  But 
what  manner  of  bodily  resurrection  does  it 
teach  ?  When  and  how  is  the  mortal  body 
to  be  made  alive?  Does  it  teach  a  long,  fut- 
ure raising  of  the  same  mortal  body  from 
the  grave? — that  the  life-giving.  Spirit  is  to 
quicken  it  by  dwelling  in  the  dust,  or  by  com- 
ing to  the  earth  to  make  it  alive  again  at  the 
end  of  time  ?  Surely  it  teaches  nothing  of  the 
kind.  But  it  does  teach  that  the  mortal  bodies 
of  believers  shall  be  made  alive  because  of  the 
life-giving  Spirit  which  dwelleth  in  than.  How 
plain  is  this  when  we  understand  it  as  teach- 
ing that  the  indwelling,  regenerating  Spirit 
extends  in  its  life-giving  operation  even  to  the 
mortal  body,  begetting  within  it  the  germ  of 
its  immortal,  spiritual  form!  And  how  per- 
fectly it  harmonizes  with  the  previous  teach- 
ings of  i  Cor.  xv !  At  verse  twenty-three, 
in  this  same  chapter,  we  read :  "And  not  only 
tJuy,  but  ourselves  also,  which  have  the  first 
fruits  of  the  Spirit,  even  we  ourselves,  groan 


124  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

within  ourselves,  waiting  for  the  adoption  (to 
wit)  the  redemption  of  our  body."  By  the  re- 
demption of  the  body  does  the  author  mean 
its  future  resurrection  from  the  earth,  or  does 
he  mean  the  same  that  he  does  at  verse  1 1  ? 
That  he  does  mean  the  latter  will  be  more 
fully  apparent  as  we  come  to  consider  his  teach- 
ing at  2  Cor.  ch.  v.  Again:  Phil,  iii,  20,  21, 
"  For  our  conversation  is  in  heaven :  from 
whence  also  we  look  for  the  Savior,  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ :  who  shall  change  our  vile  body, 
that  it  may  be  fashioned  like  unto  his  glorious 
body,  according  to  the  working  whereby  he  is 
able  even  to  subdue  all  things  unto  himself." 
This  teaching  refers  directly  to  those  who 
should  be  alive  at  the  coming  of  the  Lord, 
alluded  to  in  verse  20.  And  the  change  here 
spoken  of  corresponds  to  that  of  1  Cor.  xv, 
52,  53,  and  1  Thess.  iv,  14-18.  But  suppose 
the  change  to  be  predicated  of  those  who  die 
in  Christ.  When  and  how  is  the  vile  body  to 
be  changed  ?  Can  it  be  possible  that  Paul 
means  to  teach  that  Christ  at  his  coming  will 
gather  up  the  material  particles  of  their  dead 
bodies,  and  fashion  them  into  the  likeness  of 
his  own  glorious  body  ?     Surely  not.     By  the 


THE    RESURRECTION    OF   THE   DEAD.      125 

working  whereby  he  is  able  to  subdue  all 
things  unto  himself,  what  can  be  meant  but 
the  operation  of  the  Divine  Spirit  dwelling  in 
the  natural  man,  and  ultimating  in  the  im- 
mortal glorification  of  even  the  vile  body,  fash- 
ioning it  after  his  own  glorious  body  ? 

Once  more :  2  Cor.  v,  1-8,  "  For  we  know 
that  if  our  earthly  house  of  this  tabernacle 
were  dissolved,  we  have  a  building  of  God,  an 
house  not  made  with  hands,  eternal  in  the 
heavens.  For  in  this  we  groan,  earnestly  de- 
siring to  be  clothed  upon  with  our  house  which 
is  from  heaven  :  if  so  be  that  being  clothed  we 
shall  not  be  found  naked.  For  we  that  are  in 
this  tabernacle  do  groan,  being  burdened  :  not 
for  that  we  would  be  unclothed,  but  clothed 
upon,  that  mortality  might  be  swallowed  up 
of  life.  Now  he  that  hath  wrought  us  for  the 
self-same  thing  is  God,  who  also  hath  given 
unto  us  the  earnest  of  the  Spirit.  Therefore 
we  are  always  confident,  knowing  that,  whilst 
we  are  at  home  in  the  body,  we  are  absent 
from  the  Lord :  (for  we  walk  by  faith,  not  by 
sight :)  we  are  confident,  I  say,  and  willing 
rather  to  be  absent  from  the  body,  and  to  be 
present  with  the  Lord." 


126  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

To  me  it  does  seem  that  the  perfect  har- 
mony of  this  most  suggestive  passage  with  all 
that  St.  Paul  elsewhere  teaches  must  be  ap- 
parent at  a  glance.  But  we  will  consider  it  a 
moment.  The  key  to  the  meaning  of  the 
whole  passage  is  found  in  the  specific  meaning 
of  the  figurative  terms  used  in  the  first  verse. 
And  by  the  earthly  house  of  this  tabernacle, 
or  tent-dwelling,  what  can  be  meant  but  the 
earthly  body  ?  By  the  dissolving  of  this  house, 
or  taking  down  this  tent,  what  can  be  meant 
but  the  death  or  dissolution  of  the  body  ?  And 
by  the  building  of  (or  from)  God,  not  made 
with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens,  what  can 
be  meant  but  the  immortal,  heavenly,  spiritual 
body,  set  forth  in  the  strongest  possible  figu- 
rative contrast  with  the  earthly  mortal  body? 
In  this  strong,  figurative  language,  the  author, 
as  saith  Neander,  "  is  here  speaking  of  a  higher 
heavenly  organ,  to  contain  the  soul,  instead  of 
the  earthly  body."  And  what  can  that  organ 
be  but  the  new  spiritual,  immortal,  glorious 
body,  of  which  the  author  speaks  at  I  Cor. 
ch.  xv?  Thus  understood,  the  teaching  of 
this  whole  passage,  otherwise  obscure,  is  plain 
enough.     It  speaks  of  life  in  this  world  in  the 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   1 27 

body  as  a  temporary  tent-dwelling  in  the 
"  earthly  house,"  "  tabernacle,"  a  u  being  bur- 
dened," "groaning,"  "absent  from  the  Lord." 
The  idea  is  that  of  one  staying  in  temporary 
discomfort  in  a  tent,  or  inferior  dwelling,  wait- 
ing for  the  completion  of  a  more  substantial 
and  splendid  mansion  for  a  permanent  abode. 
It  speaks  of  death  as  a  "dissolution  of  the 
earthly  house,"  as  being  unclothed,  and  clothed 
upon,  absent  from  the  body,  present  with  the 
Lord.  It  is  a  passing,  or  rising  out  of  the 
earthly,  mortal,  corruptible  body,  and  being 
clothed  upon  of  the  heavenly,  immortal,  in- 
corruptible, spiritual  body,  mortality  (or  the 
mortal  part)  swallowed  up  of  life!  Is  not  this 
the  obvious,  unforced  meaning  of  this  passage? 
And  I  ask,  in  all  candor,  does  such  teaching 
give  any  foundation  whatever  for  the  com- 
monly received  theological  notions  that  death 
is  the  rending  in  twain  of  soul  and  body — that 
the  soul  must  go  somewhere,  an  unclothed, 
formless,  bodiless  ghost — that  it  must  wait  for 
ages  before  it  can  have  a  body,  and  must  then 
return  again  to  this  earth  to  find  it?  It  is 
manifestly  his  teaching  that  the  soul,  or 
spirit-man,    the   real  man,   is    not   unclothed, 


128  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

but  clothed  upon.  He  changes  one  body  for 
another.  The  dissolution  of  his  earthly  house 
is  but  the  condition  of  his  being  clothed  upon 
with  his  heavenly  house — mortality  being  swal- 
lowed up  of  life.  And  nowhere  does  St.  Paul, 
or  any  other  New  Testament  author,  so  much 
as  hint  that  between  the  dissolution  of  the 
earthly,  mortal  body,  and  the  being  clothed 
upon  with  a  spiritual  body,  there  must  be  a 
hiatus  of  centuries  and  ages,  during  which  the 
spirit-man  must  exist  in  a  state  of  personal  dis- 
organization— one  part  in  the  skies,  or  some- 
where else,  and  another  part  in  the  dust  of  the 
earth.  Nor  is  there  a  hint  that  when  the  time 
does  at  last  come  for  him  to  be  put  together 
again,  his  soul  must  wander  back  again  to  the 
grave-yard  to  look  for  his  heavenly  body  and 
the  lost  ruins  of  his  old  earthly  house,  which 
perished  ages  before.  All  such  conceptions 
of  the  resurrection  are  after  the  traditions  of 
men,  and  not  of  the  Word  of  God. 

Now,  so  far  as  I  know,  we  have  considered 
every  passage  in  the  New  Testament  which 
speaks  of  the  body  in  direct  or  indirect  con- 
nection with  the  resurrection,  except  those 
passages  which  speak  of  the  resurrection  of 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   1 29 

the  Lord.  These  will  be  a  subject  for  another 
chapter.  I  have  aimed  simply  to  ascertain  just 
what  these  Scriptures  do  teach.  There  are 
many  other  passages  in  the  New  Testament 
which  speak  of  the  resurrection  of  the  dead, 
but  not  of  the  body.  I  know  of  no  one  that 
conflicts  with  this  general  teaching  of  St.  Paul. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE   RESURRECTION   OF  JESUS. 

IN  calling  your  attention  to  this  great  cen- 
tral fact  in  the  history  of  our  redeemed 
humanity,  I  shall  deal  in  no  theory  or  spec- 
ulation, attempt  no  display  of  rhetoric  or 
rhapsody.  I  shall  take  the  statements  of  the 
New  Testament  authors  just  as  they  are  in 
our  English  translation.  I  will  attempt  no 
criticism,  no  new  translation,  no  comment,  no 
interpretation,  no  exegesis.  I  will  take  the 
great  fact  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  just*  as 
stated,  and  press  inquiry  in  a  single  direction, 
toward  a  single  point.  What  do  these  Script- 
ures and  this  grand  fact  of  the  resurrection  of 
Jesus  directly  and  obviously  teach  concerning 
the  future  resurrection  of  the  bodies  of  the  dead 
from  the  grave? 

This,  of  course,  is  a  very  important  inquiry, 
important   in  itself,  but   doubly  so   to  us  in 
130 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   131 

the  course  of  these  suggestive  inquiries  ;  for, 
should  it  appear  that  these  Scriptures  and 
this  great  fact  do  indeed  teach  that  the 
earthly  bodies  of  the  dead  are  to  be  raised 
from  their  graves  at  some  future  time,  then 
must  we  admit  that  we  have  misapprehended 
the  general  teachings  of  St.  Paul  and  of  the 
New  Testament  on  this  subject.  I  will  espe- 
cially endeavor  to  avoid  doing  the  harm  to 
these  important  Scriptures  which  is  usually 
done  by  the  advocates  of  cherished  dogmatic 
theories  of  the  resurrection.  They  have  usu- 
ally pressed  them  into  the  service  of  their 
favorite  theories,  regardless  of  the  twofold 
phenomena  which  they  reveal  concerning  the 
resurrection  of  Jesus.  That  the  statements 
of  the  Gospels,  when  allowed  to  speak  for 
themselves,  do  reveal  a  twofold  or  double 
phenomena  is  evident — namely,  the  literal, 
material,  and  the  spiritual,  mysterious  —  or, 
briefly,  the  objective  and  the  subjective. 

The  following  brief  synopsis  of  the  history 
of  the  Lord's  resurrection,  culled  from  the  dif- 
ferent authors,  sufficiently  indicate  the  twofold 
phenomena  attending  that  glorious  event: 

"  Now,    upon    the    first    day   of    the   week, 


132  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

very  early  in  the  morning,  they  came  unto 
the  sepulcher,  bringing  the  spices  which  they 
had  prepared,  and  certain  others  with  them. 
And  they  found  the  stone  rolled  away  from 
the  sepulcher.  And  they  entered  in,  and 
found  not  the  body  of  the  Lord  Jesus." 
Luke  xxiv,  1-3. 

"  Mary  Magdalene  came  and  told  the  dis- 
ciples that  she  had  seen  the  Lord,  and  that 
he  had  spoken  these  things  unto  her.  Then 
the  same  day  at  evening,  being  the  first  day 
of  the  week,  when  the  doors  were  shut  where 
the  disciples  were  assembled  for  fear  of  the 
Jews,  came  Jesus  and  stood  in  the  midst,  and 
saith  unto  them,  Peace  be  unto  you.  And 
when  he  had  so  said,  he  shewed  unto  them 
his  hands  and  his  side.  Then  were  the  dis- 
ciples glad  when  they  saw  the  Lord."  John 
xx,  18-20. 

"And  as  they  thus  spake,  Jesus  himself 
stood  in  the  midst  of  them,  and  saith  unto 
them,  Peace  be  unto  you.  But  they  were 
terrified  and  affrighted,  and  supposed  that 
they  had  seen  a  spirit.  And  he  said  unto 
them,  Why  are  ye  troubled?  and  why  do 
thoughts  arise   in  your  hearts  ?     Behold   my 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   1 33 

hands  and  my  feet,  that  it  is  I  myself:  han- 
dle me,  and  see ;  for  a  spirit  hath  not  flesh 
and  bones,  as  ye  see  me  have.  And  when  he 
had  thus  spoken,  he  shewed'  them  his  hands 
and  his  feet.  And  while  they  yet  believed 
not  for  joy,  and  wondered,  he  said  unto 
them,  Have  ye  here  any  meat  ?  And  they 
gave  him  a  piece  of  a  broiled  fish,  and  of  an 
honey-comb.  And  he  took  it,  and  did  eat 
before  them.,,     Luke  xxiv,  36-43. 

"And  after  eight  days  again  his  disciples 
were  within,  and  Thomas  with  them :  then 
came  Jesus,  the  doors  being  shut,  and  stood 
in  the  midst,  and  said,  Peace  be  unto  you. 
Then  saith  he  to  Thomas,  Reach  hither  thy 
finger,  and  behold  my  hands ;  and  reach 
hither  thy  hand,  and  thrust  it  into  my  side  ; 
and  be  not  faithless,  but  believing.  And 
Thomas  answered  and  said  unto  him,  My 
Lord  and  my  God."     John  xx,  26-28. 

"  But  Mary  stood  without  at  the  sepulcher, 
t  weeping :  and  as  she  wept,  she  stooped  down, 
and  looked  into  the  sepulcher,  and  seeth  two 
angels  in  white,  sitting,  the  one  at  the  head, 
and  the  other  at  the  feet,  where  the  body 
of  Jesus  had   lain :    and   they  say  unto   her, 


134  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

Woman,  why  weepest  thou?  She  saith  unto 
them,  Because  they  have  taken  away  my 
Lord,  and  I  know  not  where  they  have  laid 
him.  And  when  she  had  thus  said,  she 
turned  herself  back,  and  saw  Jesus  standing, 
and  knew  not  that  it  was  Jesus.  Jesus  saith 
unto  her,  Woman,  why  weepest  thou?  whom 
seekest  thou?  She,  supposing  him  to  be  the 
gardener,  saith  unto  him,  Sir,  if  thou  have 
borne  him  hence,  tell  me  where  thou  hast 
laid  him,  and  I  will  take  him  away.*  Jesus 
saith  unto  her,  Mary.  She  turned  herself, 
and  saith  unto  him,  Rabboni,  which  is  to  say, 
Master.  Jesus  saith  unto  her,  Touch  me  not : 
for  I  am  not  yet  ascended  to  my  Father:  but 
go  to  my  brethren,  and  say  unto  them,  I 
ascend  unto  my  Father  and  your  Father,  and 
to  my  God  and  your  God."  John  xx,  n-17. 
"And  behold,  two  of  them  went  that  same 
day  to  a  village  called  Emmaus,  which  was 
from  Jerusalem  about  threescore  furlongs. 
And  they  talked  together  of  all  these  things 
which  had  happened.  And  it  came  to  pass, 
that,  while  they  communed  together,  and  rea- 
soned, Jesus  himself  drew  near,  and  went 
with  them.     But  their  eyes  were  holden,  that 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   1 35 

they  should  not  know  him.  And  they  drew 
nigh  unto  the  village  whither  they  went:  and 
he  made  as  though  he  would  have  gone 
further.  But  they  constrained  him,  saying, 
Abide  with  us:  for  it  is  toward  evening,  and 
the  day  is  far  spent.  And  he  went  in  to 
tarry  with  them.  And  it  came  to  pass,  as  he 
sat  at  meat  with  them,  he  took  bread,  and 
blessed  it,  and  brake,  and  gave  to  them.  And 
their  eyes  were  opened,  and  they  knew  him : 
and  he  vanished  out  of  their  sight."  Luke 
xxiv,  13-16,  28-31. 

"After  that,  he  appeared  in  another  form 
unto  two  of  them,  as  they  walked,  and  went 
into  the  country.  And  they  went  and  told  it 
unto  the  residue:  neither  believed  they  them." 
Mark  xvi,  12,  13. 

Thus  we  see  from  the  objective  statement 
of  the  great  fact  it  does  not  seem  to  go 
beyond  the  tomb,  and  is  throughout  a  fact 
purely  physical  and  natural.  Thus,  we  see 
the  body  of  the  Lord  laid  in  the  tomb.  We 
know  it  is  dead.  We  see  it  secured  and 
guarded  there  against  the  possibility  of  being 
removed  by  human  agency.  We  see  the  tomb 
opened  on  the  morning  of  the  third  day,  and 


I36  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

empty.  We  see  the  risen  Christ  again  with  his 
disciples,  in  the  same  material  body  that  was  in 
the  tomb.  We  hear  him  say  to  his  doubting 
and  unbelieving  friends,  Handle  me  and  see, 
for  a  spirit  hath  not  flesh  and  bones,  as  ye  see 
me  have.  Behold  my  hands  and  feet,  that  it 
is  /  myself.  We  see  the  wounds  of  the  nails, 
and  we  even  see  him  eat  of  broiled  fish  and 
of  an  honey-comb.  Thus,  looking  alone  at 
the  objective  statement  of  the  Lord's  resur- 
rection, the  whole  fact  would  seem  to  be  little 
else  than  the  revivification  of  the  earthly  body. 
But  when  we  look  also  at  the  subjective  we 
are  led  beyond  the  tomb  to  the  under  world. 
We  hear  Jesus  say  to  the  penitent  thief,  To- 
day shalt  thou  be  with  me  in  paradise.  We 
hear  it  said  of  him  that  he  descended  into 
the  lower  parts  of  the  earth,  that  he  went 
and  preached  to  the  spirits  in  prison,  that  his 
soul  was  not  left  in  hades,  that  he  rose  from 
the  dead,  led  a  multitude  of  captives,  and  that 
he  has  the  keys  of  death  and  of  hades,  thus 
unmistakably  connecting  the  fact  of  his  resur- 
rection with  the  spiritual  world,  making  it  as 
truly  a  fact  of  the  spiritual  world  as  of  the 
natural.     Moreover,  an  hour  or  so  after  his 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   1 37 

resurrection  he  was  seen  of  Mary  Magdalene, 
one  who  knew  him  most  intimately  but  three 
days  ago,  and,  though  she  conversed  with  him, 
she  knew  him  not.  The  same  day  he  walked 
and  conversed  with  two  of  his  most  intimate 
disciples  for  a  mile  or  more,  but  they  knew 
him  not.  His  personal  appearances  to  his 
disciples  were  sometimes  very  sudden,  myste- 
rious, being  at  once  present  in  the  midst  of 
them  in  the  room  where  the  doors  were  shut, 
most  likely  locked.  Sometimes  his  appear- 
ance was  so  unearthly,  so  awe-inspiring,  as  to 
fill  his  friends  with  terror  and  fright,  and  at 
times  he  suddenly  vanished  out  of  their  sight. 
Moreover,  there  is  no  evidence  that  Jesus, 
during  the  forty  days  between  his  resurrec- 
tion and  ascension,  was  a  resident  of  this 
world  at  all.  The  most  obvious  inference 
from  the  record  is  that  he  was  not  a  resident 
of  this  world,  that  his  appearances  to  his  dis- 
ciples were  rather  visits  with  them  of  longer 
or  shorter  continuance,  and  evidently  some- 
times very  sudden,  unexpected,  and  supernat- 
ural ;  and  there  is  no  evidence  that  he  was 
ever  seen,  in  the  body  or  otherwise,  by  any 
persons   but  those  of  his  own  disciples  and 


I38  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

friends,  who  were  more  or  less  spiritual.  That 
he  was  ever  seen  by  any  of  the  world  or  in 
any  earthly  locality,  as  he  had  been  previous 
to  his  death,  there  is  no  evidence  at  all,  and 
the  obvious  inference  is  that  he  was  not. 
And,  finally,  after  a  time — "forty  days" — he 
disappeared  from  the  sight  of  his  disciples, 
and  was  seen  of  them  no  more. 

Now,  unfortunately,  these  twofold  physical 
and  spiritual,  natural  and  supernatural  phenom- 
ena, are  lost  sight  of  by  theorists  and  dogma- 
tists in  their  attempts  to  establish  their  favorite 
doctrines  of  the  resurrection.  Thus  on  one 
side,  in  defending  the  material  idea  of  the 
literal  bodily  resurrection,  the  spiritual  facts 
are  lost  sight  of,  or  made  nothing  of;  and 
theorists  seem  to  see  only  the  material  phys- 
ical facts  of  the  Lord's  resurrection.  They 
see  in  the  risen  body  and  personal  appearings 
of  the  Lord  nothing  differing  from  the  same 
natural  body  that  died ;  thus  reducing  the 
whole  stupendous  fact  of  the  Lord's  resurrec- 
tion to  a  reanimation  of  the  fleshly  body,  and 
even  allowing  the  necessity  of  its  going  through 
some  process  of  change,  or  spiritualization,  be- 
fore ascending  to  the  heavenly  world.     On  the 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.  1 39 

other  hand  others,  in  maintaining  the  more 
spiritual  theories  of  the  resurrection,  quite 
lose  sight  of  the  obvious  physical  facts,  and 
seem  to  see  only  the  spiritual.  Some  go  even 
so  far  as  to  reduce  the  whole  fact  of  the  resur- 
rection to  a  myth.  Others,  looking  only  at  the 
supernatural,  see  only  the  rising  of  a  psychical 
body,  and  not  the  earthly  body  at  all,  and  have 
to  invent  some  chemical  process  by  which  it 
was  disposed  of.  Thus  we  see  how  these 
Scriptures  are  warped  and  twisted,  now  this 
way,  then  that  way ;  magnified  on  this  side, 
then  minified  on  that,  until  the  candid,  unbiased 
mind,  who  would  see  the  harmony  of  both, 
give  to  each  its  full  meaning,  and  thus  arrive 
at  the  twofold  sense  and  teaching  of  these 
Scriptures,  and  the  full  significance  of  that 
transcendent  fact,  the  resurrection  of  the  Lord 
Jesus,  will  find  it  necessary  to  discard  very 
much  from  every  existing  theory  of  the  resur- 
rection. Then  taking  this  , twofold  objective 
record,  just  as  stated  by  the  different  New 
Testament  authors,  what  are  the  actual  facts 
they  state?  ist.  That  Jesus,  who  was  cruci- 
fied, whose  body  was  laid  in  the  tomb  of  Jo- 
seph, did  actually  appear  to,  and  converse  with 


140  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

his  disciples  and  friends  after  his  death  ;  so 
that  he  had  an  actual  personal  existence  after 
death.  2d.  His  resurrection  was  a  fact  in  the 
spiritual  world  as  truly  as  in  the  natural  world  ; 
that  is,  it  consisted  as  truly  in  the  rising  of  his 
soul  from  hades  as  in  the  rising  of  his  body 
from  the  tomb.  3d.  After  his  resurrection  he 
was  no  longer  a  resident  of  the  natural  world, 
was  never  seen  of  any  except  his  own  disciples, 
and  only  appeared  to  these  ten  times  during 
forty  days  ;  after  which  he  was  seen  no  more. 
4th.  At  times  his  appearance  was  very  natural ; 
he  seemed  clothed  again  with  the  very  material 
body  that  had  been  on  the  cross  and  in  the 
tomb.  At  other  times  his  appearance  was 
spiritual,  mysterious — sudden,  and  he  vanished 
suddenly  out  of  their  sight.  5th.  It  is  mani- 
fest from  the  concurrent  statements  of  the  rec- 
ord, that  his  resurrection  included  the  fact  of 
the  spiritual  glorification  of  the  body.  6th. 
That  the  glorification  of  the  body  was  accom- 
plished within  three  days  after  his  death,  or,  at 
most,  within  forty  days  ;  so  that  he  ceased  to 
be  a  resident  of  Galilee  in  a  natural  body  of 
flesh  and  bones,  and  became  a  resident  of 
the  heavenly  world,  in  a  spiritual,  immortal, 


THE   RESURRECTION    OF   THE    DEAD.       I4I 

divinely  glorified  body.  At  least  to  my  per- 
ception such  seem  to  be  the  facts  established 
by  the  objective  and  subjective  statements  of 
the  record.  And  beyond  these  facts  can  we 
go  without  walking  in  the  light  of  our  own 
kindling?  How  these  facts  were  accomplished 
no  mortal  can  tell.  That  transcendent  scene 
in  the  tomb,  where  a  mortal  earthly  body  first 
felt  the  life-giving,  divinely  transforming  power 
of  the  Spirit,  was  witnessed  by  no  human  eye — 
perhaps  not  by  angelic  eye.  Just  how  that 
body  was  transformed  ;  just  what  portions  of 
its  elements  entered  into  the  glorified  spiritual 
form  ;  just  what  was  the  nature  of  that  body, 
which  could  be  now  most  naturally  material, 
a  moment  before  or  a  moment  afterward  be 
wholly  unrecognizable,  or  vanish  suddenly  from 
sight,  and  be  wholly  invisible  to  natural  sight, 
no  mortal  can  tell.  And  why  should  mortal 
attempt  to  speculate  ?  Our  task  is  simply  to 
inquire,  What  do  these  Scriptures  and  these 
facts,  concerning  the  resurrection  of  Jesus, 
positively  and  explicitly  teach  concerning  the 
future  resurrection  of  the  dead  bodies  of  men  ? 
We  may  know  what  the  advocates  of  different 
theories   of  the   resurrection  say  they  teach  ; 


142  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

but  in  these  inquiries  we  have  nothing  to  do 
with  what  men  say,  but  with  what  the  Word 
itself  teaches. 

That  these  Scriptures  are  full  of  Divine 
teaching  concerning  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead,  and  concerning  the  fact  that  resurrection 
does  extend  to  the  earthly  body,  is  as  blessedly 
true  as  it  is  obvious.  They  establish  the  fact 
that  Jesus  rose  the  first  from  the  dead  in 
hades;  and  this  establishes  the  fact  that  all 
who  die  or  enter  there  with  even  a  spark  of 
his  Divine  life  in  their  souls,  will  rise  also,  but 
every  man  in  his  own  order,  i  Cor.  xv,  23. 
And  the  fact  that  Jesus'  resurrection  included 
the  immortalizing  and  glorification  of  his  body, 
establishes  the  fact,  the  resurrection  of  all 
the  dead  in  him  does  extend  to  the  immor- 
talizing and  glorification  of  their  bodies,  even 
like  unto  his  own  glorious  body.  But  when? 
and  how  ?  In  all  these  Scriptures,  which  re- 
veal the  twofold  fact  of  the  resurrection  of 
Jesus,  is  it  so  much  as  hinted  in  a  single  text, 
or  all  together,  that  the  resurrection  or  glorifi- 
cation of  the  body  is  not  to  take  place  until 
centuries  after  death  ?  And  where  is  it  so 
much  as  hinted   that   the  resurrection  of  the 


THE    RESURRECTION    OF    THE    DEAD.       I43 

body,  when  it  does  take  place,  is  to  consist  in 
the  gathering  again  and  glorification  of  the 
dust  particles  of  the  earthly  body  ?  so  that  the 
fact  of  such  a  future  resurrection  may  be  said 
to  rest  on  the  unmistakable  "thus  saith  the 
Lord,"  and  not  at  all  upon  human  interpre- 
tation or  dogmatism  ?  Can  you  find  such  text 
or  texts  in  the  revealed  history  of  the  Lord's 
resurrection  ?  Then,  if  such  resurrection  be 
taught,  it  must  be  by  the  fact  of  the  rising  of 
the  Lord's  body  itself.  But  does  the  fact  that 
the  body  of  Jesus  was  raised  jn  three  days 
after  death,  before  corruption,  explicitly  estab- 
lish the  fact  that  the  dust  of  disorganized 
bodies  will  be  gathered  again,  centuries  or 
ages  hence? 

Just  take  the  fact  itself,  in  all  its  variety  of 
statement,  but  divested  of  all  that  poetry,  re- 
ligious fervor  and  imagination,  Church  dog- 
matism, and  theological  inference  and  inter- 
pretation have  thrown  around  it,  and  added  to 
it — just  the  fact,  in  all  its  fullness,  that  the 
body  of  Jesus  was  raised  from  the  tomb — 
what  does  that  obviously  and  directly  estab- 
lish concerning  the  resurrection  of  dead  bodies 
in  general  ?     It   certainly  gives  a   foundation 


144  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

for  faith  in  a  resurrection,  and  glorification  of 
the  bodies  of  all  who  believe  in  him.  But 
does  it  obviously  settle  the  fact  that  that  res- 
urrection can  not  be  realized  until  ages  after 
death,  and  that  it  must  consist  in  the  gather- 
ing again  and  glorifying  of  the  very  earthly 
body  that  mingled  with  the  earth  ?  It  is  urged 
that  it  does  teach  such  resurrection  because 
the  resurrection  of  the  body  of  Christ  is  the 
"pattern"  of  the  resurrection  of  the  human 
body  ;  and  as  that  consisted  in  the  raising  of 
the  very  earthly  body  that  was  laid  in  the 
tomb,  so  must  the  other  consist  in  raising  the 
very  body  that  is  laid  in  the  grave.  But  who 
teaches  that  the  resurrection  of  Christ  is  such 
pattern?  Is  it  taught  in  these  Scriptures,  or 
anywhere  in  the  New  Testament,  or  does  it 
simply  rest  upon  theological  authority?  How 
can  any  thing  be  called  a  pattern  of  another 
thing  unless  all  the  essential,  and  even  the 
lesser  characteristics  of  the  former  can  be  re- 
produced in  the  other?  How  can  the  resur- 
rection of  Jesus  be  a  pattern  of  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  dead,-  unless  at  least  the  essential 
facts  of  his  rising  can  be  reproduced  in  the 
other?     But  is  this  at  all  possible?     Thus,  his 


THE   RESURRECTION    OF   THE    DEAD.      I45 

body  was  raised  in  a  little  less  than  three  days. 
The  bodies  of  the  dead  have  been  in  dust  for 
centuries;  may  be  for  centuries  more.  His 
body  saw  no  corruption.  Though  truly  dead, 
yet  there  was  no  decomposition,  no  disorgan- 
ization, so  that  the  organism  was  not  even 
seriously  impaired.  But  the  bodies  of  the  dead 
have  been  utterly  disorganized,  their  identity 
even  lost,  and  their  very  particles  all  com- 
mingled into  the  ten  thousand,  thousand  com- 
binations of  matter,  and  entered  into  infinite 
variations  of  vegetable  and  animal  life.  Now, 
will  it  be  pretended  that  the  uncorrupted  body 
of  Jesus  in  the  tomb  is  a  pattern  of  these 
bodies  of  the  dead  lost  in  dust?  Can  it  be 
said  that  the  re-inhabiting  (so  to  speak)  of 
that  still  organized  body,  is  a  pattern  of  the 
gathering  up  out  of  the  ten  thousand  forms  of 
matter  and  organic  life  of  the  dissipated  par- 
ticles of  these  bodies  ?  What  single  fact  of 
the  order  of  the  resurrection  of  the  body  of 
Jesus  can  be  reproduced  in  the  future  gather- 
ing again  of  an  earthly  human  body  ?  Not 
one.  Then  it  is  the  pattern  of  no  such  res- 
urrection, except  in  assumption  ?  And  this 
assumption  is  contradicted  by  the  direct  teach- 


I46  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

ing  of  Paul :  "  Even  so  in  Christ  shall  all  be 
made  alive  ;  but  every  man  in  his  o%vn  order  T 
Thus  the  resurrection  of  Jesus,  both  in  his 
rising  from  hades,  as  the  first  from  the  dead, 
and  in  the  rising  of  his  body  from  the  tomb, 
was  after  his  own  order,  according  to  a  pattern 
which  himself  alone  could  fill.  A  resurrection 
any  less  natural,  literal,  and  obvious,  or  any 
less  spiritual,  supernatural,  and  mysterious, 
would  not  have  met  the  circumstances  of  that 
time,  or  filled  the  relations  he  sustained  to  the 
world  of  the  living  and  the  world  of  the  dead, 
or  met  the  conditions  of  his  mission  as  the 
Savior,  the  Redeemer,  the  resurrection  and 
the  life.  Doubtless  he  could  have  attained  to 
his  bodily  resurrection  without  it  ever  being 
perceived  in  this  world,  or  known  by  even  his 
most  intimate  disciples  or  friends.  But  how 
would  Jesus  and  the  resurrection  ever  have  be- 
come the  power  of  the  Gospel  in  the  Christian 
Church  but  for  the  objective  physical  demon- 
stration of  the  fact  in  the  natural  world  ?  But 
to  limit  the  whole  stupendous  fact  to  these 
material  manifestations,  and  insist  that  in  this 
is  to  be  found  the  pattern  of  the  resurrection 
of  the  dead,  is  not  only  a  mere  dogmatic  as- 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   I47 

sumption,  but  also  a  very  stupid  and  absurd 
one. 

What,  then,  does  the  resurrection  of  Jesus, 
both  as  a  fact  and  in  its  inspired  history, 
establish  concerning  the  resurrection  of  the 
bodies  of  the  dead  ?  1.  As  his  resurrection 
did  ultimate  in  the  spiritual  glorification  of 
his  earthly  body,  is  it  not  a  fact  that  the 
resurrection  and  the  life  will  ultimate  in  the 
same  in  us?  This  fact  is  put  beyond  suppo- 
sition by  the  teaching  of  Paul  already  consid- 
ered, that  he  will  quicken  our  mortal  bodies, 
and  change  our  vile  body,  fashioning  it  like 
unto  his  own  glorious  body.  But  as  to  the 
time  or  the  manner  in  which  this  is  to  be 
accomplished  is  there  a  word  of  specific, 
direct  teaching?  Certainly  there  is  no  hint 
that  it  is  to  be  done  not  until  long  after 
death.  But,  on  the  contrary,  the  foundation 
for  inferential  theory  or  dogmatism  is  all  on 
the  other  side.  Did  not  the  resurrection  and 
glorification  of  the  Lord's  body  begin,  at  the 
furthest,  within  three  days  after  death  ?  Was 
it  not  completed,  at  the  furthest,  within  forty? 
Then,  taking  his  resurrection  as  the  pattern, 
why  may  not  the  same  work  be  accomplished 


I48  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

by  the  same  divine  power  within  the  same 
time  ?  Nay,  we  might  assume  that  the  divine 
life-giving  power  had  extended  to  the  earthly 
body  of  Jesus  even  before  the  throes  of  death 
reached  it ;  that  this  power  ceased  not  its  life- 
giving  operation  for  a  moment  until  the  body 
reached  its  glorified  state  ;  so  that  Jesus  was 
the  first  in  the  order  of  our  humanity  to  whom 
death  was  a  transition  from  the  earthly,  natu- 
ral, to  the  heavenly,  spiritual.  But  we  must 
not  speculate,  and  all  I  will  say  is  that  in 
the  resurrection  of  Jesus  there  is  nothing  to 
contradict  the  view  of  the  spiritual  glorifica- 
tion of  the  body  we  have  already  considered 
in  the  general  teaching  of  St.  Paul  and  other 
New  Testament  authors.  To  my  perception 
there  is  a  beautiful  and  wonderful  harmony. 
In  connection  with  this  New  Testament 
history  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  is  a 
remarkable  statement  by  Matthew  which  re- 
quires a  passing  notice.  The  passage  is 
found  at  Matthew  xxvii,  52,  53:  "And  the 
graves  were  opened  ;  and  many  bodies  of  the 
saints  which  slept  arose,  and  came  out  of 
the  graves  after  his  resurrection,  and  went 
into  the  holy  city,  and  appeared  unto  many." 


THE   RESURRECTION    OF   THE   DEAD.      I49 

Now,  taking  these  remarkable  verses  just  as 
we  find  them,  the  fact  just  as  stated,  raising 
no  question  as  to  the  genuineness  of  the 
text;  no  question  as  to  who  is  meant  by  the 
saints,  whether  those  who  had  been  a  long 
time  dead  or  those  who  but  recently  had 
died  ;  no  question  as  to  whether  this  is  to 
be  accepted  as  a  physical  fact,  a  literal  com- 
ing forth  of  the  material  bodies  of  the  dead 
saints,  appearing  in  the  literal  streets  of  the 
literal  Jerusalem,  seen  of  the  disciples  with 
their  natural  eyes,  or  whether  it  was  an 
appearing  of  the  spiritual  bodies  of  the  saints 
in  the  spiritual  Jerusalem  or  holy  city,  and 
seen  of  the  disciples  in  vision  or  by  their 
spiritual  perception:  but  taking  the  fact  just 
as  stated,  with  the  single  inquiry,  What  do 
the  text  and  the  fact  obviously,  directly  teach 
concerning  the  future  resurrection  of  the 
flesh?  Do  they  obviously  and  directly  teach 
that  the  earthly  bodies  of  all  the  dead  saints 
will  in  like  manner  come  out  of  their  graves 
at  the  end  of  the  world  ?  Do  you  and  I  find 
here  an  express  and  direct  "thus  saith  the 
Lord"  for  the  doctrine  that  our  dust  will  be 
gathered  from  the  graves,  so  plainly  that  our 


ISO  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

faith  in  such  a  resurrection  will  rest  not  at 
all  upon  inference,  human  interpretation,  and 
dogmatism?  Rather  may  we  not  truly  say 
that  concerning  the  time,  the  order,  or  in 
what  the  rising  of  the  body  consists,  these 
verses  teach  nothing  whatever?  The  fact 
of  the  bodily  rising  of  saints  in  temporal 
connection  with  the  rising  of  the  Lord  is 
very  significant  in  its  testimony  to  the  gen- 
eral fact  of  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  and 
to  the  fact  that  that  resurrection  extends  in 
some  way  to  the  bodies  of  the  dead.  But  to 
press  these  verses  into  the  support  of  any 
doctrine  or  theory  of  the  bodily  resurrection 
which  we  would  sustain,  is  simply  making 
them  say  by  our  own  inference  what  they  do 
not  say  at  all ;  and,  when  we  look  closely  and 
impartially,  we  are  astonished  to  find  how 
much  of  our  doctrine  and  theology  do  thus 
rest  on  mere  human  interpretation  of  the 
letter  of  the  Word,  and  especially  on  this 
glorious  theme  of  the  rising  of  the  dead. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

COLLATERAL  INQUIRIES — CONFUSION  OF  DOCTRINAL  STATE- 
MENT—NO DEFINITE  STANDARD  OF  DOCTRINE. 

HAVING  now,  to  some  extent,  at  least, 
exhausted  the  inquiry  concerning  the 
direct  teaching  of  the  New  Testament  in  rela- 
tion to  the  future  resurrection  of  the  earthly 
body,  we  might  here  rest  this  feature  of  the 
subject,  and  at  once  proceed  with  the  more 
general  question.  But  there  are  certain  col- 
lateral arguments  which  must  be  noticed  in 
order  to  complete  this  inquiry. 

And  first  of  all  is  the  very  difficulty  which 
must  environ  any  doctrine  thus  resting  upon 
human  dogma  and  the  too  literal  interpreta- 
tion of  the  Word  rather  than  upon  the  explicit 
teaching  of  the  Word  itself.  I  mean  the  dif- 
ficulty of  determining  just  what  is  implied  in 
such  resurrection,  and  of  securing  an  explicit 
and    uniform   statement   of  it  which   may  be 

151 


152  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

accepted  as  an  article  of  faith.  We  can  not 
better  point  out  this  difficulty  than  by  notic- 
ing the  teachings  of  some  of  the  leading 
minds  and  theologians  of  the  Church  during 
different  periods  of  her  history.  In  the  very 
numerous  creeds  and  doctrinal  symbolisms  of 
the  Churches  during  the  last  eighteen  hun- 
dred years  there  has  been  much  of  unanimity 
in  putting  forth  the  future  resurrection  of  the 
body  as  an  article  of  faith,  and  at  the  pres- 
ent time  the  Church  of  Rome,  the  Greek 
Church,  the  Church  of  England,  the  Protest- 
ant Episcopal,  and  a  few  others  still  retain 
the  ancient  symbolism  of  the  resurrection  of 
the  flesh,  while  among  the  many  other  Prot- 
estant Churches  there  is  considerable  variety 
of  statement  in  creeds  ;  but  in  almost  all  the 
future  resurrection  of  the  body  is  in  some 
degree  put  forth  as  an  article  of  faith.  But 
zvhat  is  to  be  believed  ?  What  is  implied  in 
such  resurrection  of  the  body?  It  is  vain 
to  say  that  the  intelligent,  thinking  mind  of 
Christendom  to-day,  in  the  Church  and  out  of 
it,  is  to  be  satisfied  with  the  simple  formula, 
"Credo  carnis  resurreetionem"  The  very  fact 
that  the  advanced   theological   minds  of  the 


THE   RESURRECTION    OF   THE    DEAD.      153 

Church  have  ever  been  laboring  to  doctrinally 
state  what  is  implied  in  such  resurrection  is 
conclusive  that  they  sought  a  reason  for  their 
faith,  and  to  lay  a  foundation  for  the  same  faith 
in  others,  and  in  this  earnest  and  sincere  effort 
to  give  doctrinal  form  and  shape  to  this  article 
of  faith  they  have  but  demonstrated  the  diffi- 
culty which  environs  it  During  the  earlier 
centuries  of  the  Church  the  general  and  uni- 
form teaching  was  that  the  resurrection  would 
consist  in  the  raising  again  of  the  very  same 
fleshly  body  that  lived  on  earth,*  that  the 
body  would  rise  with  all  its  members.  Even 
cripples  and  deformed  bodies  would  be  raised 
as  such,  but  would  be  subsequently  made  per- 
fect. Jerome  teaches  that  the  identity  of  the 
resurrection  body  with  that  laid  in  the  grave 
will  be  maintained  even  to  the  hairs  and  teeth, 
for  there  is  to  be  gnashing  of  teeth  in  the 
world  of  woe.  Thomas  Aquinas  insists  that 
hairs  and  nails  are  ornaments  of  man,  and 
therefore  quite  as  necessary  as  blood  and 
other  fluids,  but  at  the  same  time  teaches 
that  no  other  matter  will  rise  from  the  grave 
than  what  exists  at  death.     How,  then,  with 

*  Shedd's  Christian  Doctrine,  Vol.  II,  pages  403-406. 
II 


154  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

those  who  happen  to  be  baldheaded  and  tooth- 
less at  death,  and  those  who  have  attained  to 
even  a  quarter  of  a  ton  and  those  who  have 
been  reduced  to  mere  skeletons  before  death? 
Among  the  Jews  it  was  taught  that  God  has 
a  trumpet  a  thousand  ells  long ;  at  the  first 
blast  on  the  last  day  the  earth  will  be  shaken ; 
at  the  second  the  dust  of  dead  bodies  will  be 
separated  ;  at  the  third  the  bones  will  come 
together;  at  the  fourth  the  members  will  wax 
warm ;  at  the  fifth  the  heads  will  be  covered 
with  skin  ;  at  the  sixth  souls  will  enter  their 
bodies  ;  at  the  seventh  all  will  come  up  out 
of  the  earth.  It  was  also  taught  that  all  the 
bodies  of  dead  Israelites  must  rise  from  the 
valley  of  Jehoshaphat,  and  that  all  who  were 
buried  in  other  lands  would  have  to  scratch 
their  way  to  Palestine  through  the  earth  with 
their  nails  before  they  could  rise.*  And 
among  the  ancient  Rabbins  the  theory  was 
maintained  that  there  was  somewhere  in  the 
body  an  indestructible  bone  called  Luz,  which 
was  the  seed  of  the  resurrection  body.  This 
seed-bone  was  supposed  to  be  so  indestructible 
that,  though  pounded  on  anvils  with  heaviest 

*Mattison  on  the  Resurrection,  pages  18-20. 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   1 55 

hammers,  though  burned  for  ages  in  hottest 
fires  or  furnaces,  though  soaked  for  centuries 
in  strongest  solvents,  yet  it  remained  nothing 
affected,  and  at  the  last  would  grow  into  a  per- 
fect material  body.  Tertullian  thought  that 
the  teeth  were  providentially  made  eternal,  so 
as  to  serve  as  the  seeds  of  the  resurrection, 
while  Augustine  held  that  every  man's  body, 
however  dispersed  here,  shall  be  restored  per- 
fect, complete  in  quantity  and  quality.  The 
hairs  which  have  been  shaved  off,  the  nails 
which  have  been  cut,  shall  not  be  restored  in 
such  enormous  quantities  as  to  deform  their 
original  places,  neither  shall  they  perish,  but 
shall  return  into  the  body  into  that  substance 
from  which  they  grew.* 

In  more  modern  dogmatism  we  have  about 
the  same  variety  and  contrariety.  By  many 
it  is  taught  that  death  results  immediately  in 
entire  unconsciousness,  the  body  returning  to 
dust,  while  the  soul  remains  in  the  grave  or 
elsewhere  in  a  state  of  unconsciousness  until 
the  last  day,  when  at  the  sound  of  the  trump 
both  will  rise  up  together,  while  others  teach 
that  at  death  the  soul  goes  immediately  to  hell 

*De  Civ.  Dei,  lib.  xxii,  chap.  19,  20. 


156  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

or  heaven  in  conscious  misery  or  happiness, 
while  the  body  tarries  in  the  earth  until  the 
resurrection,  when  the  soul  comes  back  to 
earth,  re-enters  the  body,  and  returns  again 
to  hell  or  heaven.  Dr.  Gregory  reasons  thus : 
Man  was  constituted  a  being  by  the  union  of 
two  substances  essentially  different,  spirit  and 
matter,  and  was  destined  to  continue  a  mixed 
being  forever;  therefore  the  resurrection  of 
the  same  body  is  necessary  for  the  existence 
of  the  man  beyond  the  grave.  Moreover,  he 
urges  the  resurrection  of  the  same  body  that 
it  may  share  the  rewards  and  punishments  of 
the  soul  for  deeds  done  in  the  body,  as  it  is 
the  man,  not  a  part  of  him,  which  shall  be 
rewarded  or  punished.  Dr.  Hody  on  the  res- 
urrection says,  "  To  speak  properly,  the  body 
is  not  capable  either  of  sinning  or  doing  well. 
It  is  only  the  instrument  of  the  soul,  and  the 
arm  that  stabs  sins  no  more  than  the  sword." 

Dr.  Burnett  teaches  it  is  of  no,  great  conse- 
quence to  us  whether  we  have  the  same  par- 
ticles, or  others  of  equal  dignity  and  value,  or 
what  shall  become  of  our  cast-off  carcasses, 
when  "we  shall  live  in  light  with  the  angels." 

Dr.  Hitchcock  teaches  that  "  it  is  not  neces- 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   1 57 

sary  that  the  resurrection  body  should  contain 
a  single  particle  of  the  body  laid  in  the  grave, 
if  it  only  contains  particles  of  the  same  kind, 
united  in  the  same  proportions,  and  the  com- 
pound be  made  to  assume  the  same  form  and 
structure  as  the  natural  body." 

And  the  highly  metaphysical  Drew,  some- 
what after  the  philosophy  of  the  ancient  Rab- 
bins concerning  the  seed-bone,  luz,  teaches 
that  the  resurrection  does  not  contemplate  the 
gathering  again  of  the  particles  of  the  old 
body,  but  that  there  is  in  connection  with  the 
body  a  certain  genny  or  incorruptible  particles, 
incapable  either  of  increase  or  diminution  from 
birth  to  death,  so  fine  and  subtile  that  no  mi- 
croscope can  detect  them,  no  chemistry  de- 
compose them,  and  which,  remaining  in  a  state 
of  incorruptibility,  shall  put  forth  a  germi- 
nating power  beyond  the  grave,  and  become 
the  germ  of  our  future  bodies,  and  that  no 
other  particles  will  ever  be  raised. 

On  the  other  hand,  Bishop  Hopkins  says  of 
the  body:  "It  shall  be  raised  an  entire  and 
perfect  body.  Not  a  dust,  not  an  atom  that 
is  necessary  to  the  integrity  of  it,  shall  be  lost, 
and,  though  they  are  scattered  up  and  down 


I  58  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

the  world,  and  confusedly  mixed  with  other 
beings,  yet,  by  the  omnipotence  of  God,  and 
the  ministry  of  angels,  every  dust  shall  be 
picked  up  again,  and  set  in  its  own  due  place 
and  order." 

So  also  Dr.  Spring :  "Whether  buried  in  the 
earth,  or  floating  in  the  sea,  or  consumed  by 
the  flames,  or  enriching  the  battle-field,  or 
evaporated  in  the  atmosphere,  all — from  Adam 
to  the  latest  born — shall  wend  their  way  to  the 
great  arena  of  the  judgment.  Every  perished 
bone,  and  every  secret  particle  of  dust,  shall 
obey  the  summons,  and  come  forth." 

Thomas  Aquinas  teacheth  that  no  other 
substance  will  rise  from  the  grave  except  that 
which  belongs  to  the  individual  at  death. 

Archbishop  Tillotson,  in  answering  the  com- 
mon objection  to  the  resurrection  of  the  body, 
based  upon  the  fact  of  its  being  devoured  by 
animals  and  men,  urges  that  "  no  one  needs  be 
in  want  for  a  body  of  his  own  at  the  resurrec- 
tion, as  any  one  of  those  bodies  which  he  had 
ten  or  twenty  years  before  death,  was  every 
whit  as  good,  and  as  much  his  own  body  as 
that  which  was  eaten." 

Dr.  Mattison  supposes  that  the  stomach  and 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   1 59 

the  organs  of  reproduction  will  be  destroyed, 
and  be  unnecessary  in  the  new  body. 

Dr.  Watson  also  supposes  it  will  be  the 
same  body,  but  that  great  changes  of  a  par- 
ticular kind  will  take  place.  "  In  the  resur- 
rection they  shall  neither  marry  nor  be  given 
in  marriage,  but  be  as  the  angels  of  God.  This 
implies  a  certain  change  of  structure.  And 
we  may  gather  from  the  declaration  of  the 
Apostle,  that  though  the  stomach  is  now 
adapted  to  meats,  and  meats  to  the  stomach, 
God  will  destroy  both  it  and  them  ;  that  the 
animal  appetite  for  food  will  be  removed,  and 
the  organ  adapted  to  that  appetite  have  no 
place  in  the  resurrection  body." 

Now  it  is  true  these  would  be  considerable 
changes.  And  we  can  not  resist  the  sugges- 
tion that  changes  could  hardly  stop  with  these  ; 
for,  without  the  stomach,  what  use  would  there 
be  for  the  intestines,  liver,  duodenum,  or  any 
part  of  the  digestive  apparatus  ?  And  without 
these  of  course  there  could  be  no  blood. 
Then  what  need  to  raise  up  the  heart,  lungs, 
veins,  arteries,  or  any  of  the  organs  of  circu- 
lation or  respiration  ?  And  without  these  how 
could  there  be  muscles  or  bones ;  and  what  use 


l6o  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

even  for  brain  or  nerves  ?  And  with  all  these 
left  in  the  grave,  of  what,  pray,  would  the  new 
body  be  composed?  Yet  the  Doctor  urges 
that  the  human  form  will  be  retained  in  its 
perfection,  and  the  substance  of  the  matter  of 
which  it  is  composed  will  not  be  left  off;  that 
"  the  same  body  which  is  laid  in  the  grave 
shall  be  raised  out  of  it" 

From  among  the  most  modern  teachings  on 
this  subject  I  select  the  following : 

"The  prevailing  idea,  as  we  understand  it, 
when  expressed  in  general  terms,  is  that  the 
same  body  which  is  laid  in  the  grave  at  death 
shall  hereafter  rise  out  of  it,  and  live  again  for- 
ever;  or,  to  be  still  more  explicit,  that  all  that 
constitutes,  and  properly  belongs  to  the  body 
at  the  hour  of  death,  and  is  essential  to  its 
corporeal  identity  and  integrity,  will  be  raised 
again  to  life,  and  will  go  to  constitute  the  res- 
urrection body."  (Mattison  on  Resurrection 
of  the  Body,  page  14.) 

"  In  the  resurrection  it  is  not  a  body  that 
comes  forth,  but  a  man.  It  is  not  a  mere  body 
that  is  raised,  but  the  entire  manhood.  In 
all  cases  where  the  dead  are  raised  they  are 
men  and  women,  and  not  mere  bodies."     (Dr. 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   l6l 

H.  C.  Benson,  in  California  Christian  Advo- 
cate, Vol.  xii,  No.  38.) 

These  extracts  might  be  extended  into  a 
large  volume,  and  with  even  increasing  con- 
trariety, not  to  say  palpable  contradictions. 
And  with  such  standards  of  authoritative  teach- 
ing on  this  subject,  which  must  one  choose  in 
order  to  be  orthodox  in  the  faith  ?  Where 
Doctors  so  widely  differ,  which  shall  he  be- 
lieve ?  Surely  it  would  require  a  large  bump 
of  credulity  to  believe  all  of  them,  and  not  a 
small  one  to  believe  either  of  them — so,  after 
all,  it  may  be  most  orthodox  to  believe  neither 
of  them  ?  Thus  we  find,  even  in  our  standard 
theologies  concerning  the  future  resurrection 
of  the  flesh,  no  definite  standard  of  belief. 
Many — perhaps  most — have  given  the  subject 
but  little  thought,  have  no  defined  views  or 
conceptions  concerning  it,  feel  but  little  or 
no  interest  in  it ;  while  even  in  the  minds  of 
preachers  and  theological  writers,  who  essay 
to  teach,  there  seem  to  float  in  strange  con- 
fusion and  contrary  theories,  notions,  doc- 
trines and  definitions,  from  the  most  crude 
and  materialistic  to  the  most  subtle  and  be- 
wilderingly  metaphysical  and  speculative.    We 


l62  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

have  already  quoted  some  of  these  teachings 
in  theological  prose.  I  will  add  a  few  in 
poetry — mostly  quoted  from  Dr.  Mattison's 
late  standard  work — in  which  they  are  used 
of  course  as  expressive  of  the  orthodox  faith 
on  this  subject : 

"  Now  monuments  prove  faithful  to  their  trust, 
And  render  back  their  long-committed  dust ; 
Now  charnels  rattle  ;  scattered  limbs  and  all 
The  various  bones,  obsequious  to  the  call, 
Self-moved,  advance ;  the  neck,  perhaps,  to  meet 
The  distant  head  ;  the  distant  legs,  the  feet : 
Dreadful  to  view,  see  through  the  dusky  sky 
Fragments  of  bodies  in  confusion  fly, 
To  distant  regions  journeying,  there  to  claim 
Deserted  members,  and  complete  the  frame." 

"  The  trumpet's  sound  each  fragrant  mote  shall  hear, 
Or  fixed  in  earth,  or  floating  in  the  air, 
Obey  the  signal  wafted  in  the  wind, 
And  not  one  sleeping  atom  left  behind."  Young. 

"  No  spot  on  earth  but  has  supplied  a  grave, 
And  human  skulls  the  spacious  ocean  pave  — 
All 's  full  of  man — and  at  this  dreadful  turn,       , 
The  swarm  shall  issue,  and  the  hive  shall  burn." 

"  Each  member  jogs  the  other, 
And  whispers  /ive  you^brother  ? 

"I  know  these  hands  shall  wrestle  with  the  turf 
That  time  shall  heap  upon  them  all  in  vain ; 

Or  struggling  upward  from  the  stormy  surf, 
So  I  be  buried  in  the  mighty  main. 

Yes,  't  is  not  long  ere  I  shall  shake  the  clay 
That  years  have  matted  on  my  moldering  brow, 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   1 63 

And  tear  the  cerements  of  the  grave  away 
With  these  same  muscles  that  are  lusty  now." 

A.  C.  Coxe. 

u  These  bones  shall  startle  then, 
And  feel  strange  life  again, 
And  these  decaying  fibers  leap  to  hear. 

What  though  my  body  run  to  dust  ? 

Faith  unto  it  counting  every  grain, 
With  an  exact  and  most  particular  trust, 

Reserving  all  for  flesh  again."  Herbert. 

11  Forgotten  generations  live  again, 
Assume  the  bodily  shape  they  owned  of  old, 
Beyond  the  flood"  II.  K.  White. 

"  Each  particle  of  dust  was  claimed  ;  the  turf 
For  ages  trod  beneath  the  careless  feet 
Of  men  rose  organized  in  human  form." 

"Corruption,  earth,  and  worms 
Shall  but  refine  this  flesh, 
Till  my  triumphant  spirit  comes 
To  put  it  on  afresh."  Watts. 

The  doors  of  death  were  opened  ;  and  in  the  dark 

And  loathsome  vault  and  charnel-house, 

Moving,  were  heard  the  moldering  bones  that  sought 

Their  proper  place.     Instinctive,  every  soul 

Flew  to  its  clayey  part :  from  grass-grown  mold 

The  nameless  spirit  took  its  ashes  up, 

Reanimate ! 

The  time  draws  on 
When  not  a  single  spot  of  burial  earth, 
W7hether  on  land,  or  in  the  spacious  sea, 
But  must  give  back  its  long-committed  dust 
Inviolate  ;  and  faithfully  shall  these 
Make  up  the  full  amount ;  not  the  least  atom 
Embezzled  or  mislaid,  of  the  whole  tale. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

LAWS    OF    LIFE  —  TEACHINGS    OF    NATURE  —  ANALOGIES    IN 
LOWER    ORDERS    OF    PHYSICAL  OR   MATERIAL  LIFE. 

THE  future  resurrection  of  the  earthly 
body  from  the  grave  would  be  sadly  out 
of  harmony  with  every  known  law  and  proc- 
ess of  organized  life,  and  finds  no  analogy  or 
correspondence  in  all  God's  life-creating  and 
life-developing  order  in  nature  and  in  man 
himself.  Indeed,  it  utterly  ignores  and  sets 
aside  all  laws  or  processes  of  organic  life, 
and  rests  on  the  basis  of  miracle.  But  where 
is  the  evidence  or  the  authority  for  teaching 
that  organic  human  life,  either  physical,  intel- 
lectual, or  spiritual,  ever  has  been  or  ever  will 
be  either  created  or  developed  by  miracle  ? 
Even  the  original  creation  of  the  body  from 
dust,  are  we  to  teach  that  this  highest  order 
of  organic  physical  life  was  suddenly  consti- 
tuted miraculously,  without  regard  to  process, 
164     ■ 


THE    RESURRECTION    OF   THE    DEAD.      165 

or  is  it  not  much  more  rational  to  suppose 
that  it  was  by  a  creative  process  through  pre- 
viously constituted  laws  of  organic  life?  At 
least  we  know  that  the  human  body  as  now 
constituted  owes  its  being  to  no  miracle,  but 
is  begotten  and  developed  through  established 
laws  and  processes,  many  of  which  are  dis- 
cerned and  even  understood.  And  is  it  not 
reasonable  and  philosophical  to  suppose  that 
its  resurrection,  its  spiritualization,  which  is 
but  another  step  in  the  developing  process  of 
its  organic  life,  is  through  established  laws  of 
spiritual  life  ?  Certain  it  is  that,  put  on  this 
basis,  the  resurrection  of  the  body  is  wonder- 
fully illustrated  by  most  striking  and  beautiful 
correspondences  in  the  lower  orders  of  organic 
life  in  nature,  but  on  the.  other  basis  there 
is  not  a  single  analogy  in  the  whole  natural 
world.  True,  it  is  generally  claimed  by  the 
advocates  of  the  miraculous  resurrection  of 
the  flesh  that  such  analogies  are  abundant; 
and  such  argument  is  much  made  of  and 
relied  upon.  It  is  even  assumed  and  argued 
that  in  the  annual  palingenesis,  or  recurrent 
life  of  Spring  from  the  grave  of  Winter,  we 
have  a  manifold  analogical  illustration  of  the 


1 66  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

resurrection  of  the  flesh  from  the  grave.  Very 
true,  the  recurrent  resurrection,  so  to  speak, 
of  vegetable  life  in  Spring  from  the  death  and 
grave  of  Winter  does  teach  very  much  con- 
cerning the  resurrection  of  the  body.  But 
how?  By  gathering  up  again  and  putting  on 
anew  the  identical  sloughs  and  old,  rotten 
foliage  of  last  year?  Does  the  tree,  in  the 
new  life  and  beauty  of  Spring,  clothe  itself  by 
gathering  again  and  putting  on  the  identical 
leaves  and  flower-blossoms  which  faded  and 
fell  as  Autumn  and  Winter  approached  ?  Are 
these  ever  resurrected  in  any  sense  whatever? 
Does  the  rose-bush  ever  clothe  itself  or  bloom 
again  in  the  foliage  and  roses  which  faded  as 
Winter  approached  ?  And  of  all  the  ten  thou- 
sand thousand  forms  of  vegetable  life  which 
thus  droop  and  die,  what  single  one  ever  rises 
again  ?  and  where  in  all  the  new  life  of  Spring, 
in  all  the  transformations  of  life  in  the  whole 
vegetable  world,  is  there  a  single  fact  which 
at  all  corresponds  to  the  gathering  again  of 
the  dust  of  dead  bodies  from  the  earth  ?  Not 
one  !  not  one !  But,  allowing  that  the  resur- 
rection of  the  body  may  proceed  according  to 
established  laws  of  organic  life,  so  that  even 


THE    RESURRECTION    OF    THE    DEAD.      167 

out  of  its  old  sloughs  and  cast-off  foliage,  so 
to  speak,  it  rises  in  newness  of  spiritual  life, 
there  is  in  fact  correspondence  in  every  single 
form  of  the  recurring  life  of  Spring ;  and  man 
may  see  a  beautiful  symbol,  and  even  read  a 
prophecy  of  his  own  resurrection  in  every 
shrub,  tree,  and  flower.  But  the  correspond- 
ence is  still  more  suggestive  in  certain  phe- 
nomena of  insect  life,  in  which  there  is  not 
simply  a  renewal  of  corporeal  life,  as  in  the 
vegetable  life,  but  an  actual  rising  to  higher 
and  more  elaborate  forms  of  life ;  for  example, 
the  Libellula  or  dragon-fly,  the  silk-worm,  cat- 
erpillar, etc.  The  wonderful  transformations 
through  which  these  insects  pass  are  familiar 
to  every  naturalist ;  "  how  the  former,  when 
yet  an  unseemly  worm  in  the  water,  repairs  to 
the  margin  of  its  pond,  attaches  itself  to  a 
plant  or  piece  of  wood  ;  how  the  skin  grad- 
ually becomes  dry  and  brittle,  at  last  splits 
open  opposite  to  the  upper  part  of  the  thorax. 
Through  this  aperture  the  insect  pushes  its 
way,  now  winged,  and,  thus  freed  from  con- 
finement, begins  to  flutter,  and  soon  launches 
away  into  the  air  with  that  gracefulness  and 
ease  which  are  characteristic  of  this  majestic 


l68  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

insect."  So  of  the  caterpillar,  how  it  passes 
through  various  transformations,  and  finally, 
after  sleeping  in  its  little  self-wrought  coffin, 
it  comes  forth  a  beautiful  winged  butterfly  of 
brightest  hues,  and  basks  gayly  in  air  and 
sunshine,  having  attained  a  development  of 
corporeal  life  astonishingly  beyond  that  of  its 
slug  state.  Now,  to  show  the  difficulty  of 
using  these  wonderfully  suggestive  facts,  we 
need  but  quote  from  the  effort  of  one  of  the 
most  acute  and  able  writers.  Dr.  Gregory,  in 
speaking  of  the  development  of  the  dragon-fly, 
says :  "  Who  that  saw  the  little  pendent  coffin 
in  which  the  inanimate  insect  lay  entombed 
would  ever  predict  that  in  a  few  weeks,  per- 
haps hours,  it  would  become  one  of  the  most 
elegant  of  winged  insects  ?  And  who  that 
contemplates  with  the  mind  of  a  philosopher 
this  curious  transformation  can  deny  that  the 
body  of  a  dead  man  may  at  some  future  period 
be  again  invested  with  vigor  and  activity,  and 
soar  to  regions  for  which  some  latent  organi- 
zation may  peculiarly  fit  it?"  But  could  the 
unbiased  mind  of  a  philosopher  see  any  anal- 
ogy whatever  between  the  little  pendent  coffin 
with  a  living  insect  in  it  and  the  body  of  a 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   169 

dead  man?  In  the  former  the  laws  of  organic 
life  are  busy  at  work  in  evolving  the  higher 
development  of  corporeal  life ;  in  the  latter 
there  is  no  life  at  all,  and  the  body  is  aban- 
doned to  decay  and  disorganization.  How  can 
a  true  philosopher  fail  to  see  that  the  analogy 
in  this  case  is  between  the  body  of  the  dead 
man  and  the  little  pendent  coffin  or  slug  after 
the  winged  insect  has  gone  out  of  it?  And 
will  he  not  inquire,  Will  this  little  pendent 
coffin  itself  ever  fly  away?  Will  the  winged 
dragon-fly  ever  return  to  enter  it  again,  or  will 
it  or  any  of  its  particles  ever  again  form  any 
part  of  its  body?  Where  in  all  the  developing 
life  of  nature  is  there  witnessed  such  a  resur- 
rection as  that?  Nor  does  the  butterfly  ever 
return  to  put  on  again  the  exuvice  of  the  cater- 
pillar. No  such  fact  was  ever  known  in  the 
history  of  insect  life,  or  in  any  form  of  life  in 
the  natural  world  ;  but  in  all  these  the  law  of 
organic  life  is  development,  not  return — ascent, 
not  descent. 

There  can  be  no  analogy  between  a  dead 
body  in  its  grave,  and  the  insect  in  its  "  slug," 
or  little  pendent  coffin,  or  any  of  the  forms  of 

vegetable  life  during  their  dormant  state   in 
12 


I70  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

Winter.  In  all  these  life  is  not  only  not  ex- 
tinct, but  is  ever  active  in  evolving  its  future 
corporeal  forms.  But  can  this  be  so  of  the 
dead  body  in  its  coffin  ?  But  if  we  consider 
the  present  life  of  the  body  as  its  slug  state — 
that  the  quickening,  Divine  life  power  is  at 
work  evolving  the  future  higher  and  more 
spiritual  corporeality,  and  that  death  is  but 
the  rising  to  the  realization  of  that  form — then 
the  correspondence  is  suggestive  enough.  And 
not  an  insect  that  rises  from  its  slug  to  its 
chrysalis  state,  not  a  tree,  or  shrub,  or  plant, 
that  rises  in  the  new  life  of  Spring  from  the 
seeming  death  of  Winter,  but  teaches  that  the 
death  of  the  body  may  be  but  the  condition  of 
its  rising  to  a  new  life.  And  of  such  a  resur- 
rection how  beautiful  and  suggestive  are  these 
correspondencies !  But  not  one  that  gives  the 
least  hint  that  the  fleshly  exuviae  of  the  earthly 
body  will  ever  be  raised  to  life  again.  Not  one. 
This  is  even  admitted  by  some  of  the  most 
able  advocates  of  the  literal  resurrection  of  the 
body.  Dr.  Hitchcock,  in  speaking  of  those 
writers  on  Natural  Theology  who,  like  Dr, 
Gregory,  have  used  the  analogy  of  Nature  in 
direct  proof  of  the  future  resurrection  of  the 


THE   RESURRECTION    OF   THE   DEAD.      171 

flesh,  says :  "  But  unfortunately  there  is  one 
defect  in  the  analogy  that  seems  to  have  been 
overlooked.  When  man  is  laid  in  the  grave 
we  know  that  no  vestige  of  life  remains.  We 
may  inflict  whatever  injuries  we  please  upon 
the  dead  body,  but  it  will  exhibit  no  signs  of 
sensibility.  Not  so  with  the  chrysalis.  In  its 
most  torpid  state  you  can  always  find  marks 
of  vitality.  The  conclusion,  therefore,  is  that 
the  curious  facts  respecting  insect  metamor- 
phosis, although  a  beautiful  emblem  of  man's 
resurrection,  are  but  a  poor  argument  in  direct 
proof  of  the  doctrine." 

Dr.  Mattison,  in  commenting  upon  this, 
says :  "  Dr.  Hitchcock  has  well  observed,  Nature 
furnishes  no  instance  of  life  from  an  actual  state 
of  death,  and  consequently  affords  no  really  ap- 
propriate or  complete  illustration  of  the  res- 
urrection of  the  body.  Had  we  no  better  light 
upon  this  subject  than  these  'emblems/  we 
should  be  constrained  to  exclaim,  in  the  lan- 
guage of  Beattie's  Hermit : 

'But  when  shall  Spring  visit  the  moldering  urn  ? 
O  when  shall  day  dawn  on  the  night  of  the  grave  ?' 

There  is  nothing  in  Nature  alone  to  assure  us 
of  a  future  life  for  the  body  of  man.     There  is 


172  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

no  living  ovum,  or  germ,  in  the  dead  body,  that 
retains  its  vitality  through  the  long  night  and 
cold  Winter  of  the  tomb.  While,  therefore, 
Nature  may  faintly  illustrate  the  glorious  res- 
urrection, her  more  legitimate  lesson  .  .  . 
vvould  be  that  man  once  dead  will  live  no  more 
forever." 

Now,  from  the  stand-point  occupied  by  these 
eminent  minds,  this  is  all  true.  That  is,  limit- 
ing the  resurrection  to  mean  only  the  future 
gathering  up  of  the  dissipated  dust  of  the 
fleshly  body,  there  is  a  "defect  in  the  anal- 
ogy," and  a  very  serious  one.  To  the  body 
in  the  grave  no  vestige  of  life  remains,  no 
"ovum"  or  "germ"  no  lesson  in  the  recur- 
rent life  of  vegetation  in  Spring,  or  in  the  de- 
veloping life  of  insects — no  lesson  in  the  whole 
teeming  volume  of  Nature  which  teaches  that 
man  once  dead  will  ever  live  again.  And  on 
the  part  of  these  able  and  eminent  advocates 
of  such  a  resurrection  this  must  be  a  sad  yield- 
ing up  of  what  has  so  generally  been  con- 
sidered an  important  and  convincing  argument 
in  its  support.  But,  in  actual  fact,  are  these 
things  which  they  say,  true  at  all  ?  Is  all  Nat- 
ure thus  dumb  and  blank    in  her  teaching? 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   1 73 

In  all  her  myriad  voicings  has  she  no  lesson 
concerning  man's  rising  from  the  dead,  when 
properly  understood  ?  When  we  consider  that 
the  death  of  the  body  is  but  the  condition  of 
its  rising  to  a  higher  life  ;  that  there  is  within 
it,  through  the  regenerating  .operation  of  the 
life-giving  Spirit,  a  germ,  or  embryo  of  its 
higher  spiritual  organism — just  as  in  the  nat- 
ural order  there  is  in  the  seed,  the  flower,  the 
insect,  the  living  principle  of  its  renewed  cor- 
poreity ;  is  not  Nature  every-where  most  elo- 
quent and  luminous  in  her  teaching  that, 
though  man  may  die,  yet  shall  he  live  again  ; 
that,  so  far  as  his  body  is  concerned,  death 
is  but  his  rising  out  of  his  slug,  or  chrys- 
alis state,  into  the  higher  and  more  beautiful 
corporeal  life  of  the  full-fledged  immortal  ? 
Then  let  the  advocates  of  a  long  future  fleshly 
resurrection  admit,  as  they  must,  that  God  in 
Nature  nowhere  teaches  any  such  resurrec- 
tion. But  let  them  not  say  that  Nature  is 
dumb  and  voiceless,  teaching  nothing  concern- 
ing man's  resurrection  ;  but  rather  let  man 
look  out  every-where  in  Nature  and  behold 
her  suggestive  prophecies  of  his  corporeal  im- 
mortality. 


174  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

Moreover,  this  idea  of  a  bodily  resurrection 
not  until  the  end  of  time,  seems  sadly  out  of 
harmony  with  our  most  rational  and  cherished 
conceptions  of  the  future  development  of  hu- 
man life.  In  this  world  the  development  at- 
tained between  birth  and  death  is  very  limited 
at  best ;  and  under  the  most  favored  circum- 
stances, and  with  the  mass  of  our  humanity, 
it  can  scarcely  be  called  development  at  all. 
With  millions  it  is  suddenly  arrested,  even  in 
early  childhood  and  infancy;  while  millions 
more,  who  live  to  old  age,  scarcely  advance  be- 
yond the  state  of  soul  childhood.  Hence  the 
cherished  conception  that  development  will  be 
realized  in  the  other  life.  But  how  can  this 
be  when  the  whole  order  of  organic  life  is 
broken  up  by  death  ?  For  even  the  most  able 
advocates  of  a  long  future  bodily  resurrection 
do  admit  that  the  state  of  personal  existence 
after  death — the  soul  in  heaven  or  hell,  and 
the  body  in  the  dust  of  the  earth — is  an  ab- 
normal state.  It  is  a  state  of  actual  disorgan- 
ization. And  with  the  body  thus  dissolved  in 
dust  there  surely  can  be  no  corporeal  develop- 
ment after  death.  And  if  this  same  body  dis- 
solved in  dust  is  still  an  essential  part  of  the 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   1 75 

personal  organism  or  being,  if  it  must  be  the 
future  organ  of  the  soul,  to  which  it  must  re- 
turn, how  can  the  soul  develop  in  the  unfold- 
ing of  its  powers,  and  yet  put  on  the  same 
material  organism  which  was  even  a  hinder- 
ance  to  its  growth  ages  ago  ?  How  can  a 
child,  for  instance,  after  centuries,  continually 
develop  in  all  its  soul  powers,  and  then  come 
down  to  put  on  the  wee  body  it  left  ages  be- 
fore? or  will  the  same  miracle  which  gathers 
up  the. dust,  suddenly  elaborate  it  into  a  cor- 
poreal organism  suited  to  the  developed  soul  ? 
Or  will  the  soul  of  the  child  remain  a  child- 
soul  for  ages,  in  order  that  it  may  thus  again 
put  on  its  infantile  body,  and  after  that  com- 
mence to  expand?  How  irrational  and  base- 
less such  conceptions,  and  how  sadly  out  of 
harmony  with  every  known  law  and  fact  in 
God's  order  developing  organic  life !  The 
only  logical  conclusion  is  there  can  be  no 
normal  development  of  either  soul  or  body 
during  the  long,  long  period  between  death 
and  the  resurrection — that  the  infant  mind 
must  abide  in  its  infant  state,  the  childish 
soul  of  the  undeveloped  man  retain  its  dwarfed 
faculties   until    the   reunion   of  the   long-sun- 


iy6  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

dered  factors  of  the  organic  life.  But  what  an 
idea  of  everlasting  life  is  that?  And  where  in 
all  the  written  Word  is  there  a  verse  or  line 
which  even  hints  at  this  future  reunion  of  soul 
and  body,  this  putting  up  again  of  the  organic 
being,  man,  or  that  can  be  made  to  express 
such  a  reunion,  even  on  the  rack  of  the 
most  ingenious  interpretation  ?  Such  a  dog- 
ma rests  entirely  upon  speculation  and  infer- 
ence, as  is  even  admitted  by  that  most  zealous 
advocate  of  such  a  future  coming  together  of 
soul  and  body.  (Dr.  Mattison,  Resurrection 
of  the  Body,  p.  337,  sect,  xi.) 

But  we  need  not  pursue  inquiry  further  on 
this  part  of  our  general  subject ;  and  may  dis- 
miss it  with  the  following  conclusions  : 

1.  That  the  doctrine  of  the  future  resurrec- 
tion of  the  earthly  body  from  the  literal  grave, 
as  stated  in  the  general  teachings  of  our  ortho- 
dox creeds  and  theologies,  does  not  so  much 
find  its  foundation  in  the  obvious  and  direct 
teachings  of  the  written  Word  as  in  the  theo- 
logical and  churchly  interpretation  thereof,  and 
upon  inferences  drawn  from  the  too  literal  and 
naturalistic  apprehension  of  the  letter  of  the 
Word  ;  and  as  a  doctrine  it  gives  but  an  im- 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   I  77 

perfect  and  partial  statement  of  the  whole 
New  Testament  teaching  concerning  the  res- 
urrection of  the  dead. 

2.  That  in  the  Church  creeds  and  theologies 
we  find  such  a  mass  of  confused,  indefinite, 
and  even  contradictory  statement  and  teaching 
that  it  is  quite  impossible  to  determine  just 
what  is  the  standard  of  belief  in  the  Churches 
on  this  important  subject. 

3.  That  in  the  Christian  Church  of  our  day 
the  New  Testament  doctrine  of  the  resurrec- 
tion and  the  life  in  Jesus  has  become  little 
else  than  a  formal,  lifeless  dogma,  nominally 
believed  by  a  large  majority  of  Christians,  but 
seemingly  with  dim  and  unsatisfying  percep- 
tions of  what  it  is,  defended  and  preached  by 
comparatively  few,  and  in  all  manifestly  lack- 
ing that  interest  and  quickening  power  which 
strongly  marked  the  doctrine  of  Jesus  and  the 
resurrection  in  the  primitive  Church. 

4.  It  is  very  generally  rejected  by  the  most 
intelligent,  thinking,  and  inquiring  minds  of 
the  age,  both  in  the  Church  and  out  of  it,  and 
can  not  be  made  a  doctrine  of  power  and  life, 
either  in  the  Church  or  in  the  world. 

Yet  it  has  its  uses  in  the  Church,  ever  has 


178  SUGGESTIVE   INQUIRIES. 

had,  and  ought  not  hastily  to  be  put  aside  or 
rudely  assailed.  It  is  infinitely  better  than 
no  doctrine  or  faith  in  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead.  As  the  merely  objective  and  literal 
statement,  it  presents  the  only  view  of  the 
subject  which  the  perception  of  multitudes 
has  been  able  to  reach  or  is  able  now  to 
reach.  To  their  perception  a  resurrection 
that  does  not  in  some  way  take  hold  on  the 
particles  of  this  very  earthly  body  long  after 
death  is  no  resurrection. 

How  far  the  continuance  of  this  too  mate- 
rial perception  is  owing  to  the  almost  exclu- 
sively materialistic  and  naturalistic  teaching 
and  preaching  in  the  Churches  I  will  not  now  ' 
pause  to  inquire,  but  I  suspect  this  has  very 
much  to  do  with  it.  The  fact  is  it  exists,  and 
to  such  a  perception  the  literal  and  even  mate- 
rial resurrection  of  the  body  is  better  than 
no  resurrection.  The  glorious  spiritual  reality 
will  in  no  wise  be  affected  or  retarded  by  a 
sincere  faith  in  even  such  a  resurrection,,  and 
to  tear  down  suddenly  the  foundations  of  such 
faith  is  like  tearing  away  the  trellis  from  the 
ivy  or  the  vine,  or  knocking  the  crutches  from 
under  the   infirm,  who    may  not   be  able    to 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   1 79 

stand  without  them.  Hence,  to  you,  Chris- 
tian reader,  who  may  hitherto  have  rested  in 
the  belief  that  your  earthly  body  will  be  raised 
from  the  dust,  I  say  my  aim  is  not  to  tear 
down  the  foundation  of  your  hope  in  the  res- 
urrection of  your  body,  but  to  lead  you  to 
a  higher,  more  spiritual  and  comprehensive 
perception  of  the  resurrection  and  the  life  in 
Jesus;  and  if  you  can  not  find  a  more  com- 
forting, life-giving  view  in  what  you  may 
have  read  in  these  inquiries,  then  abide  in 
your  present  belief;  only  do  n't  be  prejudiced. 
Do  n't  refuse  to  look  beyond  the  horizon  of 
your  present  belief  from  the  consideration  that 
any  thing  beyond  must  be  mistaken  or  false 
and  dangerous  to  you. 

And  "in  giving  public  expression  to  the 
above  inquiries  concerning  the  resurrection 
of  the  body  which  may  come  in  conflict  with 
the  orthodox  faith,  I  only  insist  that  that  faith 
must  not  be  forced  upon  Christian  men  and 
ministers  whose  candid  and  prayerful  study  of 
the  Word  of  God,  whose  clearly  defined  per- 
ceptions of  the  truth,  have  led  them  beyond 
it.  I  only  insist  that  they  must  have  the 
same   liberty  to    think,   investigate,  and    give 


ISO  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

free  expression  to  their  perceptions  that  they 
accord  to  those  who  are  willing  and  con- 
tent to  rest  in  the  orthodox  faith ;  and  thus, 
instead  of  Christian  minds  in  the  Churches 
being  shut  up  to  the  perceptions  of  this  all- 
important  subject  which  are  expressed  in  the 
oft-repeated  teachings  of  a  single  view  of  it,  let 
it  be  opened  to  them  from  another  view,  and 
let  them  candidly  study  it  from  different  stand- 
points, and  let  their  faith  take  in  such  percep- 
tions as  afford  most  of  comfort,  life,  and  light 
to  their  hearts  and  fill  them  with  the  high- 
est and  fullest  realizations  of  immortality  and 
eternal  life  in  Christ  Jesus. 


CHAPTER  X. 


"  I  am  the  resurrection,  and  the  life :  he  that  believeth  in 
me,  though  he  were  dead,  yet  shall  he  live :  and  whosoever 
liveth  and  believeth  in  me  shall  never  die."    John  xi,  25,  26. 

"  Even  so  in  Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive.  But  every 
man  in  his  own  order :  Christ  the  first-fruits ;  afterward  they 
that  are  Christ's  at  his  coining."     1  Cor.  xv,  22,  23. 

INQUIRY  may  now  return  to  the  more 
general  question  of  the  rising  of  the  dead. 
Already  have  we  seen  that  this  general  ques- 
tion is  not  found  in  our  theological  teachings 
concerning  the  resurrection  of  the  body  from 
the  grave,  but  in  the  teaching  of  the  New 
Testament  concerning  the  rising  of  the  dead 
from  hades.  The  features  of  this  general  fact 
next  claiming  our  attention  are  the  time  and 
order  of  this  rising.  So  far  as  the  body  is 
concerned,  we  have  already  seen  that  its  res- 
urrection begins  with  the  life-giving  operation 
of  the  Spirit  of  Christ  in  regeneration ;  that 
the  life-giving  operation  of  the  Spirit  proceeds 


1 82  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

from  the  soul  to  the  body,  imparting  to  it  the 
germ  principle  of  its  spiritual  organism  ;  that 
death  is  but  the  sowing  of  the  earthly  and 
the  rising  of  the  renewed  spiritual  body,  or 
death  affords  the  conditions  through  which 
the  earthly  body  rises  to  its  higher,  immortal, 
spiritual  organism,  so  that  the  soul  enters  the 
spiritual  world  clothed  upon  with  a  spiritual 
body  born,  so  to  speak,  out  of  the  earthly 
body,  and  just  suited  to  its  begun  existence 
there,  just  as  it  was  clothed  upon  with  the 
earthly  body  suited  to  its  begun  and  contin- 
ued existence  in  this  natural  world.  Thus 
the  personality  is  fully  preserved,  the  soul 
has  its  corporeal  organ,  and  all  the  condi- 
tions of  continued  development  according  to 
established  laws  of  organic  life;  and  in  these 
incorruptible,  spiritual,  glorified  bodies  do  the 
dead  rise  from  hades  as  they  attain  to  the 
fullness  of  the  resurrection  and  the  life  in 
Jesus. 

This  is  a  most  interesting  and  important 
feature  of  the  resurrection.  True,  it  may  to 
some  seem  somewhat  novel,  and  out  of  har- 
mony with  all  accepted  orthodox  views.  But 
I  would  fain  hope  that  it  is  no  newly  fledged 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   1 83 

conception  of  my  imagination,  but  that  it  is 
old  as  the  inspired  Word,  and  real  as  the 
future  world  to  which  death  leads  us.  Have 
we  not  seen  that  such  is  the  teaching  of  Paul  in 
his  fifteenth  chapter  of  ist  Corinthians?  Yet 
we  may  well  linger  about  this  point,  and  still 
further  consider  it  in  the  light  of  other  Script- 
ures, especially  those  wonderful  sayings  of 
Jesus,  such  as  these :  "  He  that  believeth  on 
me  hath  everlasting  life.  I  am  that  bread 
of  life.  If  any  man  eat  of  this  bread  he  shall 
live  forever.  I  am  the  resurrection  and  the 
life.  He  that  believeth  in  me,  though  he 
were  dead,  yet  shall  he  live.  And  he  that 
liveth  and  bclicvct/i  in  me  shall  never  die." 
The  first  manifest  truth  revealed  by  these 
glorious  words  is  that  living  union  with  Jesus 
by  personal,  appropriating  faith,  raises  the  soul 
from  spiritual  death,  and  makes  it  the  recipient 
of  everlasting  life.  Thus,  he  that  believeth, 
or  heareth  the  voice  of  the  Son,  or  eateth 
the  bread  of  life,  though  already  spiritually 
dead,  shall  live.  The  second  truth  is,  he  that 
thus  liveth  and  believeth,  or  continueth  by 
living  faith  to  abide  in  Jesus,  hath  everlasting 
life,  and  shall  never  die.     Now  of  course  all 


I84  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

will  admit  that  this  teaching  does  reveal  a 
blessed  immortality  for  the  soul ;  and  that  this 
living  union  does  secure  everlasting  life  to  the 
soul.  But  how  many  will  be  ready  to  admit 
that  it  secures  the  same  for  the  body  ?  That 
this  same  immortality,  everlasting  life,  ex- 
tends even  to  the  body,  and  that  it  will  never 
die?  But  why  not?  It  was  on  the  occasion 
of  the  resurrection  from  the  grave  of  the  body 
of  Lazarus  that  these  words  were  spoken. 
They  must  be  understood  as  teaching  some- 
thing concerning  the  future  destiny  of  the 
body.  They  were  spoken  to  Martha,  the  sister 
of  Lazarus,  whose  Jewish  faith  saw  nothing  in 
the  resurrection  of  the  dead  but  the  rising 
again  of  dead  bodies  from  the  tomb  at  the  last 
day.  Are  we  to  understand  that  Jesus  aimed 
merely  to  confirm  this  view  by  saying,  "  I  am 
the  resurrection  and  the  life?  He  that  liveth 
in  me  (and  beHeveth,  abideth  in  me)  hath  ever- 
lasting  life,  shall  never  die.""  Is  it  putting 
more  meaning  into  these  wonderful  words  than 
they  will  bear  to  say  that  this  resurrection  and 
life  does  extend  even  to  the  mortal  body,  and 
that  living  union  with  him  does  bring  everlast- 
ing life,  even  to  the  body ;  so  that  to  such  as 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   1 85 

truly  live  in  him  there  is  really  no  death  at 
all  ?  What  seems  to  be  death  is  but  the  dis- 
solving of  the  earthly  house — the  final  process 
in  the  changing  and  making  alive  of  the  vile 
mortal  body,  out  of  which  it  rises  in  the  like- 
ness of  the  Lord's  spiritual,  glorious  body? 
Indeed,  it  would  seem  that  nothing  less  than 
this  will  fill  the  words,  either  of  these  texts  or 
the  parallel  ones,  which  run  all  through  the 
teachings  of  Jesus.  Thus  can  it  be  truly  said 
that  we  have  everlasting  life,  and  shall  never 
die,  if  death  is  to  reign  absolutely  over  these 
bodies  for  long,  long  centuries  and  ages? 
What  kind  of  everlastiiig  life  is  that  in  which 
there  is  to  be  no  corporeal  life  whatever  for 
these  ages  ?  What  kind  of  never  dying  is  that 
in  which  death  is  to  hold  the  body  in  dust  for 
ages  ?  It  does  not  relieve  this  matter  to  say, 
Be  comforted,  for  death's  reign  shall  not  be 
everlasting ;  the  body  shall  not  die  forever. 
Nay,  but  the  words  of  Jesus  do  not  say  that 
death  shall  not  be  everlasting,  but  that  life 
shall  be  everlasting — that  is,  life  all  the  time. 
He  does  not  say,  ye  shall  not  die  forever,  but 
shall  never  die — that  is,  shall  not  die  at  all. 
And  in  thus  limiting  these  blessed  words  to 
13 


186  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

suit  our  confirmed  conceptions  of  a  future  cor- 
poreal resurrection,  do  we  not  empty  them  of 
half  their  infinite  meaning,  and  circumscribe 
the  infinite  power  of  Jesus  as  the  resurrection 
and  the  life  ?  And  in  insisting  that  we  must 
die,  and  be  under  the  dominion  of  death,  the 
grave,  the  dust,  and  the  worms,  do  we  not 
choose  death  rather  than  life?  Why  thus  limit 
an  Almighty  Savior?  Why  thus  obscure  and 
weaken  our  faith  in  him  with  such  clouds  and 
darkness  ?  Why  cast  such  a  gloom  and  fear 
over  our  hope  of  everlasting  life  in  him  ?  Then 
may  we  not  say  finally  on  this  point,  that  in 
Jesus,  as  the  resurrection  and  the  life,  we  are 
lifted  forever  out  of  death's  dominion,  so  far  as 
the  grave  and  the  dust  are  concerned  ?  What 
we  call  death  may  occur,  the  earthly  house 
may  dissolve,  the  flesh  and  blood,  which  can 
not  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God,  or  rise  to  the 
heavenly  state,  may  mingle  again  with  the 
combinations  of  matter,  whence  they  were 
taken  and  to  which  they  belong,  but  such 
death  is  only  the  final  change  in  the  corporeal 
organism.  It  is  but  the  necessary  condition 
of  its  rising  to  its  higher  order  of  existence, 
that  it  may  become  the  immortal,  incorrupt- 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   1 87 

ible,  glorious,  and  spiritual  corporeal  organ- 
ism of  the  spiritual  man,  suited  to  his  higher 
life  in  the  spiritual  world. 

We  may  next  consider  the  revealed  order 
of  the  general  resurrection  of  the  dead.  That 
the  word  does  teach  a  general  resurrection 
of  all  the  dead  in  Christ  from  hades,  has,  I 
think,  been  clearly  indicated.  What  is  to  be 
the  general  order  of  this  rising,  and  when  is  it 
to  be  consummated  ? 

The  general  conception  expressed  in  our 
theological  teaching  is  that  the  resurrection 
is  to  take  place  at  the  last  day,  at  the  end 
of  time ;  and  that  it  is  to  occur  all  at  once, 
"  so  to  speak,"  at  a  given  signal.  But  is  this 
conception  truly  in  harmony  with  the  teaching 
of  the  Word?  Does  the  Word  teach  that 
none  of  the  dead  have  yet  been  raised  from 
hades,  or  ever  reached  the  heavenly  world  ? 
Does  it  teach  that  all  the  dead,  even  from 
Adam,  must  wait  in  the  under  world  until  the 
end  of  time  ?  Rather  is  it  not  true  that  the 
Word  places  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  in 
Christ,  in  connection  with  his  coming  and  the 
end  of  the  age,  or  present  dispensation  ?  And 
between    this    event    and    the    final    consum- 


1 88  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

mation  of  all  things  there  is  a  very  marked 
difference.  And  may  it  not  be  true  that  what 
is  generally  termed  the  general  resurrection 
of  the  dead  may  be  the  final  consummation 
of  the  rising  of  the  dead,  which  has  been  in 
process  ever  since  Christ,  the  first-fruits,  arose? 
So  that  the  final  scene  of  the  resurrection,  at 
the  coming  of  the  Lord,  will  consist  rather  in 
the  rising  of  the  multitudes  who  still  remain 
in  the  under  world  than  in  the  rising  of  all  the 
dead  who  have  ever  entered  there  since  the 
days  of  Adam.  In  this  direction  we  begin  in- 
quiry with  the  positive  teaching  of  the  Word 
that  all  the  dead  found  in  hades  at  the  coming 
of  the  Lord  will  be  raised  incorruptible,  and 
the  living  who  are  regenerate,  that  is,  who 
have  individual  living  union  with  Jesus,  will 
be  changed.  But  is  it  taught  that  any  of  the 
saints  ever  will  attain  to  the  resurrection,  and 
reach  the  higher  heaven  before  that  time  ?  In 
this  direction  we  may  not  be  able  to  go  very 
far,  and  may  venture  nothing  beyond  sugges- 
tion ;  yet  there  are,  here  and  there,  portions 
of  the  Word  which,  when  taken  together,  do 
seem  to  throw  their  united  rays  of  divine 
light  in  this  direction. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

TIME  AND  ORDER  OF  THE   RESURRECTION    IN   CHRIST. 

"  But  now  is  Christ  risen  from  the  dead,  and  become  the 
first-fruits  of  them  that  slept  For  since  by  man  came  death, 
by  man  came  also  the  resurrection  of  the  dead.  For  as  in 
Adam  all  die,  even  so  in  Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive.  But 
every  man  in  his  own  order :  Christ  the  first-fruits ;  afterward 
they  that  are  Christ's  at  his  coming.  Then  cometh  the  end, 
when  he  shall  have  delivered  up  the  kingdom  to  God,  even 
the  Father;  when  he  shall  have  put  down  all  rule,  and  all 
authority,  and  power.  For  he  must  reign,  till  he  hath  put 
all  enemies  under  his  feet.  The  last  enemy  that  shall  be 
destroyed  is  death."     I  Cor.  xv,  20-26. 

IN  this  wonderful  chapter  from  which  we 
have  quoted  there  seems  to  be  nothing 
wanting  for  a  complete  doctrine  of  the  resur- 
rection. The  teaching  of  these  verses  seems 
to  be  concerning  death  in  Adam  and  life  or 
resurrection  in  Christ.  By  man —  Adam  — 
came  death  ;  by  man — Christ — came  also  the 
resurrection   of   the   dead.     As   in  Adam  all 

die,  even  so  in  Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive, 

189 


I9O  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

every  man  in  his  own  order,  or  in  the  order 
of  his  rank:  Christ  the  first-fruits  in  his 
order  as  the  first  begotten  from  the  dead ; 
then  every  man  in  the  order  of  his  rank ; 
then  or  afterward  they  that  are  Christ's  at 
his  coming — at  the  end  of  the  age;  then  or 
afterward  the  end,  the  final  consummation, 
when  he  shall  have  put  down  all  rule  and 
power,  even  the  enemy  death  at  last  de- 
stroyed, and  the  kingdom  of  God  supreme 
in  all  the  redeemed  humanity.  What  is  the 
meaning  of  death  in  Adam,  and  of  resur- 
rection, or  made  alive  in  Christ?  I  can  not 
agree  with  those  expositors  who  limit  death  to 
physical  or  corporeal  death  and  "made  alive 
in  Christ"  to  the  future  resurrection  of  the 
body,  and  who  teach  that  in  this  sense  the 
whole  Adam  race  are  to  be  made  alive.  Such 
interpretation  is  utterly  out  of  harmony  with 
the  letter  and  spirit  of  this  whole  chapter, 
and  with  all  of  St.  Paul's  teaching  concern- 
ing the  resurrection  in  Christ.  It  makes  St. 
Paul  teach  that  the  life-giving  operation  of 
the  Spirit  of  Christ  must  extend  indiscrimi- 
nately to  all  me7iy  even  to  the  bodies  of  the 
wicked.     This  makes  him  contradict  himself, 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   191 

for  most  manifestly  in  all  his  teaching  the 
life-giving  operation  of  Christ  is  qualified  by 
the  condition  in  Jiim.  Doubtless  death  is 
here  used  in  its  general  New  Testament 
sense,  spiritual  death;  for  the  death  which 
fell  upon  Adam,  and  through  him  upon  our 
humanity,  was  not  physical,  but  spiritual 
death.  It  planted  its  empire,  not  in  the 
body,  but  in  the  sou/,  extending,  of  course^ 
in  its  life-destroying  influences  even  to  the 
body,  hastening  its  dissolution.  Even  so 
the  life  which  has  been  incarnated  in  our 
humanity  in  Christ  is  a  divine,  spiritua/  life, 
planting  its  empire  of  life  in  the  soul,  but 
ultimating  in  the  immortal  glorification  of 
the  body.  Such  is  the  primary  and  general 
New  Testament  sense  of  death  in  Adam  and 
life  in  Christ.  Hence,  of  course,  the  expres- 
sions in  Adam,  in  Christ,  imply  a  living, 
personal,  individual  community  of  nature  and 
life.  Hence  a//  die  in  Adam,  because  all  are 
actual  partakers  of  his  nature,  born  into  his 
state  of  spiritual  death ;  and  in  Christ  al/  are 
made  alive  who  are  born  of  the  Spirit  into 
his  divine  nature  and  made  actual  partakers 
of  his  divine  spiritual  life  by  personal  union 


192  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

with  him  as  the  branches  in  the  vine.  Is 
this  true  of  every  member  of  the  race?  Cer- 
tainly not.  The  whole  plan  of  redemption 
and  teachings  of  the  Gospel  suppose  the  fact 
that  some  are  not  in  Christ;  that  multitudes 
even  separated  themselves,  and  keep  them- 
selves aloof,  by  unbelief  and  wicked  works, 
from  the  fountain  of  life.  Hence  this  teach- 
ing of  Paul  seems  to  be  that  in  Adam  all  die, 
because  all  are  actually  born  into  his  state  of 
spiritual  death ;  and  in  Christ  all  are  made 
alive  who  are  to  any  extent  in  actual  living 
community  of  nature  with  him,  and  my  faith 
is  that  all  are  thus  in  him  who  do  not  actu- 
ally and  persistently  separate  themselves  from 
him  by  unbelief  and  evil  works.  And  this 
being  made  alive  in  Christ  Jesus,  taken  from 
its  incipiency  to  its  ultimate  fullness  of  im- 
mortality and  eternal  life  in  both  soul  and 
body,  includes  all  that  can  be  meant  by  the 
resurrection  and  the  life  in  Jesus,  all  that  can 
be  meant  by  the  resurrection  of  the  dead. 
But  the  resurrection  as  distinctively  taught 
in  the  New  Testament  does  not,  of  course, 
express  or  mean  all  that  is  comprehended  in 
this  all-comprehending  Gospel  of  the  resur- 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   1 93 

rection  and  the  life  in  Jesus,  but  is  limited 
rather  to  the  gospel  of  triumph  over  death 
and  hades.  And  this  is  the  grand  central 
fact  and  pov^er  of  the  whole  Gospel  of  eternal 
life.  Lose  out  of  it  the  fact  that  Christ  as 
man  did  pass  through  physical  death,  that  he 
did  descend  into  the  lowest  regions  of  death's 
dominions — hades — and  did  triumphantly  rise 
again  and  ascend  in  glorified  human  form  to 
the  abodes  of  immortality  and  eternal  life, 
and  that  all  who  are  in  him,  who  live  and  die 
in  him,  shall  in  like  manner,  in  the  order  of 
their  rank,  triumph  over  death  and  hades  and 
ascend  to  the  heavenly  worlds  of  life,  light, 
and  immortality,  and  we  are  left  in  the  noon- 
day of  the  Gospel  with  the  sun  eclipsed. 

In  verses  twenty-three  and  twenty-four  is 
obviously  taught  somewhat  concerning  the 
general  order  of  this  being  made  alive  in 
Christ:  First  Christ  in  his  own  order  as  the 
first-fruits,  the  "  first  begotten  from  the  dead  ;" 
then  every  man  in  his  own  order,  or  in  the 
order  of  his  rank;  afterward  they  that  are 
Christ's  at  his  appearing ;  then  afterward  the 
end,  the  final  consummation,  when  all  power 
and  dominion  shall   be  put  down,  and  even 


194  SUGGESTIVE   INQUIRIES. 

the  last  enemy — death — destroyed,  and  God 
be  all  in  all.  Now,  are  we  to  understand  that 
this  general  order  as  thus  indicated  is  all  to 
occur  at  once  in  point  of  time,  or  that  differ- 
ent parts  or  scenes  may  transpire  after  even 
long  periods  of  time  intervening?  Christ's 
resurrection  was  not  only  the  first  in  his  own 
order,  but  surely  the  first  also  in  the  general 
order  of  the  rising  from  the  dead.  As  the 
risen  Lord  he  is  not  only  the  first-fruits  of 
our  humanity  risen  from  the  dead,  but  he  is 
the  beginning  of  a  whole  line,  a  consecutive 
order  of  those  in  him  who  are  to  be  made 
alive  and  rise  in  like  manner  from  the  dead, 
each  in  his  own  order,  or  according  to  his 
rank.  With  the  conception  of  an  army,  the 
idea  or  order  is  that  of  coming  on  in  compa- 
nies, divisions,  or  cohorts  ;  or  with  the  con- 
ception of  a  harvest,  as  intimated  in  the  text, 
the  idea  is  that  of  different  kinds  of  grain 
being  gathered  in  the  order  of  their  maturity: 
Christ  the  first-fruits,  then  each  in  his  own 
order,  the  harvest  according  as  the  different 
grains  are  ready  to  be  gathered.  Now,  that 
the  underlying  klea  of  this  order  is  that  of 
degree  or  gradation  in  the  state  and  develop- 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   1 95 

ment  of  the  divine  life  must  be  evident  to 
every  reflecting  mind.  Some  will  reach  the 
state  of  maturity  in  the  divine  life  before  oth- 
ers, and  each  will  find  his  place  in  the  order 
of  his  rank.  But  it  must  also  involve  the 
idea  of  time.  And  what  is  that  idea?  Is  it 
that  this  general  order,  beginning  with  the 
first-fruits  eighteen  hundred  years  ago,  is  to 
be  broken  by  a  hiatus  reaching  from  that 
period  until  the  end  of  time?  Is  it  true  that 
during  all  this  long,  long  period  no  one  will 
reach  his  maturity  of  divine  life  in  his  order? 
Can  it  be  that  all  in  Christ  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  world  are  each  to  attain  to  the 
resurrection  from  the  dead  at  the  same  time, 
and  that  not  until  the  judgment  at  the  end 
of  time  ?  Is  there  to  be  so  vast  a  waiting  as 
this  between  the  first-fruits  and  the  maturity 
of  any  part  of  the  harvest?  Rather  may  we 
not  suggest  at  least  that  the  general  resurrec- 
tion of  the  dead  in  Christ  indicated  by  Paul  at 
verses  fifty-one  and  fifty-two,  and  at  1  Thess. 
iv,  15-17,  will  rather  consist  in  the  final  con- 
summation of  the  rising  of  the  dead,  the  grand 
finale  of  the  harvest,  so  that  the  dead  in  Christ 
who'  will   be  raised  at  the  appearing  of  the 


I96  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

Lord  at  the  end  of  the  age  are  those  who  will 
yet  remain,  who  have  not  yet  attained  to  the 
resurrection,  and  not  all  the  saints  of  God 
from  the  days  of  Adam;  so  that  ever  since 
Jesus  rose  as  the  first-fruits  and  bore  off  the 
keys  of  death  and  hades  the  door,  so  to  speak, 
has  been  left  open,  and  multitudes  have  in 
their  order  attained  unto  the  first  resurrection, 
and  have  risen  to  the  higher  heavens  ?  This 
may  seem  to  be  venturing  beyond  what  is 
written,  and  be  startling  even  as  a  suggestion, 
but  have  we  no  light  from  the  Word. to  shine 
on  the  pathway  of  such  inquiries  ?  We  have 
already  seen  in  Eph.  iv,  8-12,  that  when  Christ 
ascended  from  hades  he  led  a  multitude  of 
captives,  and  in  Matt,  xxvii,  55,  we  have  seen 
this  fact  made  manifest  even  in  this  natural 
world,  even  as  the  resurrection  of  the  Lord 
was  made  manifest  by  the  rising  of  his  body 
from  the  tomb.  Now,  what  is  the  conception 
we  are  to  form  of  these  Scriptures  ?  To  my 
perception  they  teach  that  Christ,  during  his 
mission  in  hades,  did  bring  to  multitudes  of 
the  saints  of  the  older  dispensations  the  full- 
ness of  the  resurrection  and  the  life,  deliv- 
ered   them   from  the   dominion   of  death,   so 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.   I97 

that  when  he  ascended  to  the  higher  heav- 
ens they  did  ascend  with  him  ;  and,  it  may  be 
but  a  fancy,  tut  I  have  supposed  they  consti- 
tuted the  cloud  which  hid  him  from  the  dis- 
ciples as  they  surrounded  their  ascending  and 
triumphant  Lord.  Again:  in  the  Revelation 
John  makes  frequent  mention  of  those  who 
do  not  seem  to  have  been  residents  either  of 
this  world  or  of  hades,  and  who  were  evidently 
men.  Thus,  in  chapter  vii,  9-17,  "He  beheld 
a  great  multitude,  which  no  man  could  num- 
ber, .  .  .  which  stood  before  the  throne 
and  the  Lamb,  clothed  with  white  robes  and 
palms  in  their  hands,"  verse  13.  And  when 
he  was  asked,  "What  are  these?"  as  if  to 
say,  Are  they  angels  or  men  ?  he  said,  "  Sir, 
thou  knowest."  And  he  was  told,  "  These  are 
they  who  have  come  out  of  great  tribulation, 
and  have  washed  their  robes,  and  made  them 
white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb.  Therefore 
are  they  before  the  throne  of  God,  and  serve 
him  day  and  night.  And  he  that  sitteth  on 
the  throne  shall  dwell  among  them."  And  in 
chapter  xv,  2,  3,  he  speaks  of  them  that  had 
gotten  the  victory  over  the  beast,  who  stood 
on  the  sea  of  glass,  having  the  harps  of  God, 


I98  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

and  who  sang  the  song  of  Moses  and  the 
Lamb.  And  again,  in  chapter  xix,  he  speaks 
of  hearing  "a  great  voice  of  muck  people  in 
heaven,  even  as  the  voice  of  a  great  multitude." 
And  as  he  conversed  with  one  of  these  heav- 
enly ones  he  even  fell  at  his  feet  to  worship 
him.  But  he  said,  "  Do  it  not,  for  I  am  thy 
fellow-servant,  of  thy  brethren  the  prophets." 
And  yet  again,  at  chapter  xiv,  he  speaks  of  the 
same  great  multitude,  and  says,  "  These  were 
redeemed  from  among  men,  the  first  unto  God 
and  the  Lamb." 

Now  what  other  conception  can  we  form  of 
these  multitudes  of  glorious  ones  seen  in  the 
heavenly  state  than  that  they  are  fully  re- 
deemed ones  of  our  race,  who  have  attained  to 
the  resurrection  and  the  life,  and  are  with 
their  risen  Lord  in  his  heavenly  kingdom? 
Or  are  they  simply  disembodied  spirits,  who 
have  reached  the  heavenly  kingdom  without  a 
judgment  or  resurrection,  who  must  come 
back  to  this  earth  at  the  end  of  time  to  put  on 
their  bodies,  and  return  again  to  heaven,  to  re- 
alize the  fullness  of  immortal  bliss  ? 

Again :  There  are  passages  of  the  Word 
which  seem  to  me  to  teach  that  when  Jesus 


THE   RESURRECTION    OF   THE    DEAD.      I99 

comes  again,  at  the  end  of  this  dispensation, 
or  age,  multitudes  of  the  redeemed  from  this 
earth  will  come  with  him.  This  fact  seems  to 
be  indicated  in  the  teaching  of  St.  Paul  at 
1  Thess.  iv,  14-18.  And  again,  at  chapter  iii, 
13  :  "  To  the  end  he  may  establish  your  hearts, 
unblamable  in  holiness  before  God,  even  our 
Father,  at  the  coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
with  all  his  saints."  And  at  Jude,  verse  14: 
"Behold  the  Lord  comethy  with  ten  thousand 
of  his  saints."  Then  those  symbolical  words 
of  St.  John,  describing  his  vision  of  New 
Jerusalem,  Rev.  xxi,  2-10.  Of  this  "  New  Je- 
rusalem, holy  city,  coming  down  from  God 
out  of  heaven,  adorned  as  a  bride,"  etc.,  what 
true  conception  can  we  form,  except  that  it  is 
the  Church  triumphant,  the  invisible  kingdom 
of  Jesus  in  the  heavens  ?  And  by  the  descent 
of  this  city,  and  the  marriage  of  the  Lamb, 
what  can  be  meant  but  the  glorious  manifesta- 
tion of  this  Church  of  the  redeemed  at  the 
coming  of  the  Lord?  And  is  not  that  holy 
city — the  glorious  spiritual  Church  in  the 
heavens — made  up  of  the  redeemed  ones  from 
this  earth  who  have  gotten  the  victory?  are 
they  but  disembodied,  impersonal  spirits,  who 


200  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

must  still  wait  for  ages  before  they  receive 
their  glorified  bodies  from  the  earth  ?  But  not 
to  press  this  interesting  inquiry  further,  Is 
there  not  some  foundation  at  least  for  the 
soul-enrapturing  conception  that  the  risen 
Jesus  has  not  remained  alone  in  the  heavens 
to  enjoy  his  glorious  victory  over  death  and 
hades  ;  but  that  multitudes  of  his  redeemed 
ones  have  in  like  manner,  in  their  order,  at- 
tained to  the  same  victory,  and  stand  with  him 
on  Zion's  hill?  and  that  multitudes  more 
will  attain  unto  the  resurrection  and  the  life 
in  their  order,  pass  on  and  upward  from  the 
opened  prison  of  death  before  the  end  of  this 
dispensation,  and  will  come  with  their  glorious 
King,  when  he  comes  again  to  raise  those  who 
still  sleep  in  him,  glorify  his  living  saints,  and 
establish  the  tabernacle  of  God  with  men  ?  O 
what  a  vision  of  immortality  and  eternal  life  is 
thus  made  possible  to  faith  in  Jesus,  the  resur- 
rection and  the  life !  And  is  it  but  a  vision  ; 
an  imaginative  suggestion  of  a  poor  human 
brain  ?  Is  there  nothing  divinely  real  about  it 
in  the  revealed  Word  ? 

There  is  one  other  Scripture  which  seems 
to  set  the  resurrection  and  the  life  in  Jesus 


THE    RESURRECTION    OF    THE    DEAD.      201 

before  us  as  a  realization  of  faith,  and  of  con- 
scious Christian  experience.  Phil,  iii,  9-12. 
It  is  true,  as  generally  expounded,  this  pas- 
sage has  no  reference  to  the  anastasis,  and 
expresses  nothing  more  than  an  advanced,  or 
high  attainment  in  Christian  experience  in 
this  life — so  that  Paul  meant  by  "  knowing 
him,  and  the  power  of  his  resurrection,  and 
the  fellowship  of  his  sufferings,  being  made 
conformable  unto  his  death ;  if  by  any  means 
I  might  attain  unto  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead,"  nothing  more  than  what  he  hoped  to 
attain  in  this  life.  But  it  does  seem  to  me 
that  this  exposition  does  not  bring  out  the  real 
power  of  meaning  contained  in  these  pregnant 
words.  In  them  Paul  seems  to  be  laboring 
and  struggling,  "  so  to  speak,"  to  give  expres- 
sion to  the  glorious  realizations  of  the  res- 
urrection and  the  life  in  Jesus  which  were 
opening  to  his  faith  and  in  his  spiritual  con- 
sciousness. And  I  do  not  think  it  too  much 
to  say  that  his  faith  in  Jesus  as  the  anastasis 
and  the  life  did  already  consciously  realize  the 
life-giving  power  of  that  resurrection  already 
begun  in  soul  and  body,  and  was  on  the 
stretch  to  realize  and  rest  in  the  conscious 
14 


202  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

assurance  that  through  that  power  he  should 
fully  attain  unto  the  resurrection  of  the  dead — 
that  is,  should  have  everlasting  life — should 
never  die;  that  as  Jesus  had  risen  from  the 
dead  even  so  he  might  know  him  in  the  power 
of  his  resurrection,  that  he  too  might  attain 
unto  the  resurrection  of  the  dead.  And  does 
not  this  harmonize  with  the  glorious  concep- 
tion of  his  teaching  at  2  Cor.  v,  i-io,  where 
he  considers  death  simply  as  the  putting  off 
the  earthly  house,  and  being  clothed  upon  with 
the  heavenly — the  mortality  swallowed  up  of 
life,  present  with  the  Lord?  It  would  seem 
that  less  than  this  will  not  fill  the  meaning 
this  whole  passage  so  labors  to  express  b/its 
know  him  in  the  power  of  his  resurrection  ; 
"fellowship  of  his  sufferings;"  "conformable 
to  his  death;"  "attain  to  the  resurrection;" 
"by  any  means;*9  "those  things  which  are  be- 
fore ;"  "  the  mark  for  the  prize  of  the  high  call- 
ing," etc.  And  was  it  not  such  a  conception 
of  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  which  gave 
such  power  to  the  preaching  of  "Jesus  and  the 
resurrection  "  in  those  days  ?  Not  only  was  it 
a  power  in  the  Apostle's  own  soul,  as  we  thus 
see  by  his  struggling  up  into  life,  but  it  was 


THE    RESURRECTION    OF   THE   DEAD.      203 

the  power  of  his  preaching ;  it  was  the  power 
of  the  preaching  of  his  fellow-apostles ;  it  was 
the  power  of  the  faith  and  Christian  conscious- 
ness of  the  Christian  Church. '  What  made  it 
so  ?  Was  it  simply  the  resurrection  of  the  flesh 
at  the  end  of  all  time  to  which  Paul  was  thus 
struggling  by  any  means  to  attain,  and  which 
so  quickened  his  spiritual  consciousness  ? 
What  means  were  necessary  but  hopefully  to 
resign  his  body  to  the  grave,  and  wait  the 
slowly  on-rolling  of  the  ages,  trusting  in  the 
miraculous  power  of  God?  And  was  it  the 
preaching  of  such  a  resurrection,  pr  the  mere 
repetitions  of  the  old  Jewish  notions  about  the 
resurrection  of  the  flesh  that  so  wonderfully 
quickened  the  life,  elevated  the  faith,  and  re- 
joiced the  hope  of  the  early  Christian  Church  ? 
Nay,  verily.  It  was  Jesus  already  risen  from 
the  under  world,  ascended  above  all  heavens, 
leading  a  multitude  of  captives.  It  was  Jesus, 
the  life-giving  power  of  an  everlasting  life. 
It  was  to  know  him  as  this  power,  even  as 
wrought  out  in  his  own  resurrection,  and  by 
conformity  to  his  death  and  sufferings,  to  at- 
tain unto  like  resurrection  with  him.  Thus  to 
faith  and  consciousness  the  resurrection  was 


204  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

even  a  begun,  present  reality;  so  that  it  was 
not  as  a  simple  dogma,  addressed  to  their  mere 
belief,  that  the  doctrine  of  the  anastasis  was 
made  so  great  a  power  in  the  early  Christian 
Church,  but  the  resurrection  and  the  life  in 
Jesus,  as  a  present  life-power  in  soul  and  body, 
through  personal,  living  union  with  Jesus,  the 
risen  Lord,  and  consciously  realized  to  faith  as 
already  begun,  and  joyously  reached  forward 
after,  in  hope  of  its  sure,  and  even  speedy  at- 
tainment. 

And  why  has  that  power  been  lost  in 
the  Christian  Church?  Why  is  that  great, 
central,  soul-quickening  truth  of  the  whole 
Gospel  so  little  made  of  in  the  Churches 
now?  Why  is  it  that  the  preaching  of  the 
resurrection  of  the  dead  seems  to  mean  so 
little?  Rather  why  is  it  that  it  is  so  little 
preached  as  to  be  scarcely  preached  at  all? 
Is  it  not  because  the  whole  glorious  doctrine 
has  been  reduced  to  cold,  lifeless,  literalistic, 
materialistic  dogma,  addressed  merely  to  our 
orthodox  belief,  and  with  the  long,  dark 
night  of  death,  and  the  grave,  corruption, 
earth,  and  worms,  reaching  through  the  ages 
between  our  souls  and  its  realization?     What 


THE   RESURRECTION    OF   THE   DEAD.     20$ 

food  for  faith  or  consciousness  in  such  an 
everlasting  life  as  that,  and  what  divine  life- 
power  to  the  soul  in  such  a  resurrection  as 
that  ?  And  how  could  such  a  resurrection 
ever  be  made  a  spiritual  life-power  in  the 
Church,  even  when  preached  ever  so  much? 
The  fact  is,  but  few  can  get  life  enough 
out  of  it  to  preach  it,  and  when  they  do 
it  is  more  a  rattling  of  the  sounding  brass 
and  tinkling  cymbal  of  speculative  theories 
and  doctrinal  formulas  than  an  imparting  of 
life  to  the  faith  and  consciousness  of  the 
Church. 

But  let  Jesus  and  the  resurrection  become 
the  realized  power  of  an  everlasting  life  to 
soul  and  body,  a  present  realization  to  faith 
and  consciousness  ;  let  preachers  and  saints 
again  struggle  in  faith,  like  Paul,  to  know  him 
in  conformity  to  his  death  and  in  the  power 
of  his  resurrection,  and  seek  by  any  means  to 
attain  unto  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  ;  let 
the  under  world  of  the  dead  stand  open  to 
faith  through  the  death-conquering  power  of 
the  risen,  ascended  Jesus  ;  let  him  be  ever 
seen  by  faith,  beckoning  believers  upward  to 
the   heavenly  paradise,  as   he   proclaims,  He 


206  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

that  liveth  and  believeth  in  me  shall  never 
die,  and  think  you,  may  not  the  resurrection 
again  become  a  power  in  the  Church  ?  Yea, 
verily ! 


CHAPTER  XII. 


PARTING  WORDS. 


WITH  you,  reader,  who  may  thus  far 
have  accompanied  me  in  these  inqui- 
ries, I  would  have  a  parting  word.  Doubt- 
less you  have  seen  much  of  defect,  much  of 
occasion  for  criticism.  But  have  you  read 
with  candor  and  without  prejudice?  If  not, 
I  can  in  no  way  concern  myself  as  to  what 
impressions  you  may  have  received,  what  con- 
clusions you  may  have  formed,  or  what  judg- 
ments you  may  mete.  You  must  yourself  look 
after  these.  But  if  so,  I  would  freely  speak 
with  you.  Have  any  of  the  views  presented 
seemed  to  antagonize  any  of  your  theological 
or  doctrinal  opinions,  or  in  any  way  wounded 
or  shocked  your  religious  sensibilities  ?  Be- 
lieve me  sincere  when  I  tell  you  I  certainly 
intended  neither,  but  have  aimed  simply 
to  express  my  own  perceptions  of  the  truth 

207 


208  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

plainly  but  independently  and  earnestly  on 
this  very  important  subject.  I  have  done  so 
in  the  form  of  inquiry,  from  my  very  strong 
convictions  on  the  subject  of  human  fallibility. 
Having  seen  so  much  of  human  teaching  put 
forth  in  the  positive,  dogmatic  form,  declaring 
thus  and  so  to  be  the  truth  and  the  whole 
truth  when  woefully  otherwise,  I  have  grown 
chary  of  all  that  style  of  teaching.  Besides, 
in  coming  to  the  Word  of  God  to  learn  just 
what  it  does  say,  is  not  the  spirit  of  humble 
and  dependent  inquiry  most  becoming  to  mor- 
tals such  as  we,  and  in  giving  expression  to 
our  perceptions  is  it  not  best  to  remember 
that  we  see  through  a  glass  darkly,  and  that 
we  may  be  mistaken?  Nor  is  it  best  to  hold 
to  our  doctrinal  opinions  with  that  tenacity 
which  makes  us  intolerant  of  views  which 
seem  to  conflict  therewith,  and  which  prompts 
us  to  look  upon  those  who  express  them  as 
assailants. 

We  will  have  no  controversy,  candid  reader. 
Let  us  simply  prove  all  things,  and  hold  fast 
to  that  which  is  good.  If  these  inquiries  lead 
you  not  into  the  conscious  perception  of  the 
truth  of  the  Divine  Word,  receive  them  not. 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.  209 

If  they  may  assail  your'  cherished  beliefs  or 
pain  your  religious  sensibilities,  be  assured  no 
one  regrets  it  more  than  I. 

There  are  just  two  considerations  of  which 
I  would  speak  with  you  in  these  parting 
words  :  1.  Are  these  things  which  you  have 
read  concerning  the  resurrection  of  the  dead 
true  ?  2.  What  would  be  their  probable  effect 
on  your  heart  and  your  Christian  life  should 
you  believe  them  ?  Of  the  first  I  have  but 
very  little  to  say,  and  will  spend  not  a  word, 
not  a  moment's  breath,  in  trying  to  prove  to 
you  that  they  are  true.  They  must  stand  or 
fall  by  their  own  internal  evidence  of  their 
truthfulness.  I  care  not  a  straw  to  gain  your 
logical  or  merely  intellectual  and  rational  as- 
sent, but  would  speak  to  your  inner  conscious- 
ness ;  and,  if  these  inquiries  do  not  in  some 
measure  bring  to  your  Christian  consciousness 
the  spiritual  truth  and  verities  of  the  revealed 
Word,  there  is  an  end  of  the  matter. 

What  their  effects  upon  your  heart  and 
your  Christian  life  ?  What  of  the  comfort,  the 
hope,  and  joyful  anticipation  of  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  dead  will  they  bring  to  your  heart  ? 
Is  there  comfort  and  joy  to  your  heart  in  the 


210  SUGGESTIVE   INQUIRIES. 

belief  that  your  body  will  be  raised  out  of  the 
earth  at  the  end  of  time,  and  be  changed  into 
a  spiritual  body?  Is  there  any  less  comfort 
in  the  belief  that  your  mortal  body  has  already 
implanted  within  it  the  germ  of  its  immortal, 
spiritual  form,  through  the  regenerating,  quick- 
ening power  of  the  indwelling  Spirit  of  Christ, 
and  that  death  will  be  to  you  but  the  condi- 
tion through  which  your  body  will  be  raised 
to  its  higher  immortal  and  spiritual  form?  Is 
it  a  comfort  to  you  to  believe  that  the  bodies 
of  your  friends,  your  loved  ones,  your  own 
dear  children,  will  be  raised  from  the  dust  at 
the  end  of  time  ?  Is  it  any  less  comfort  to  be- 
lieve that  they  are  already  risen  ? — that  as  their 
mortal  forms  were  sown  in  death  they  were 
quickened  into  immortality,  and  raised  in  spir- 
itual forms — as  their  earthly  tabernacles  were 
dissolved,  or  put  off,  they  were  clothed  upon 
with  their  heavenly  forms — mortality  being 
swallowed  up  of  life — so  that  your  loved  ones 
are  really  not  in  the  earth  at  all,  but  living 
and  blooming  evermore,  and  waiting  to  greet 
you  just  beyond  the  veil  ?  Is  it  a  comfort  to 
your  heart  to  believe  that  your  disembodied 
soul  will  return  to  this  natural  world  at  the 


THE   RESURRECTION    OF   THE   DEAD.      211 

end  of  time,  to  be  clothed  again  with  your 
body,  raised  out  of  the  dust?  Is  it  any  less 
comfort  to  believe  that  your  soul  will  be 
clothed  upon  with  your  spiritual  body — born, 
so  to  speak,  from  the  womb  of  your  perishing 
earthly  body — so  that,  instead  of  entering  the 
spiritual  world  as  a  naked,  incorporeal  ghost, 
you  enter  upon  your  higher  life  there,  clothed 
upon  with  a  spiritual  body,  just  suited  to  the 
state  of  your  spiritual  life,  and  to  all  the  con- 
ditions of  your  continued  development  ?  Is  it 
a  comfort  to  your  heart  to  believe  that  God 
has  power  miraculously  to  seek  out  and  gather 
up  the  dissipated  particles  of  your  long-lost 
body  at  the  last  day?  Is  it  any  less  comfort 
to  believe  that  he  has  the  Divine,  regenerating 
life-power  to  quicken  your  mortal  body,  to 
change  and  fashion  it  like  unto  his  own  glo- 
rious body  by  his  Spirit,  which  dwelleth  in 
you  ?  Can  you  conceive  of  any  joy,  of  any 
comfort,  of  hope,  or  blessed  anticipation,  which 
the  glorious  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  is 
designed  to  impart  to  the  children  of  God  that 
is  in  any  way  lessened  as  we  thus 

"  Feel  the  resurrection  near, 
And  antedate  that  day  ?" 


212  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

To  my  heart  at  least  all  is  enhanced  a  thou- 
sand-fold. But  you  say,  Does  that  faith  which 
thus  consciously  feels  the  resurrection  near 
rest  upon  God's  Word,  or  upon  mere  human 
inferences  and  sensations?  Ah!  that  is  just 
the  question  underlying  this  whole  matter,  and 
just  the  question  I  would  have  you  most  care- 
fully and  candidly  consider.  And  along  with 
it  this  other  question,  Does  that  faith  which 
puts  the  resurrection  far  away  at  the  end  of 
time,  so  that  it  is  scarcely  consciously  felt  at 
all,  rest  upon  the  Word  of  God,  or  upon  mere 
human  theologies  and  doctrines? 

Again.  Will  ih^fact  of  the  resurrection  be 
made  any  the  less  certain  to  you  ?  That  is, 
supposing  the  doctrine  that  your  body  will  not 
rise  until  the  end  of  time  should  prove  true, 
will  the  belief  that  it  will  rise  at,  or  soon  after 
death,  change  God's  order,  and  prevent  its 
rising  at  all  ?  I  trow  not.  Neither,  I  sup- 
pose, will  your  belief  that  it  will  not  rise  until 
the  end  of  time  arrest  the  life-giving  operation 
of  the  indwelling  Spirit.  In  this  view  of  it 
the  fact  of  the  resurrection  depends  upon  your 
livings  abiding  union  with  Jesus,  as  the  branch 
in  the  vine.     But  is  it  not  worth  while  to  have 


THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  DEAD.  213 

a  faith  that  fully  gives  you  the  victory  over 
death;  that  absolutely  lifts  you  out  of  the 
grave,  and  blots  out  that  long,  dark  period, 
reaching  on  through  the  coming  ages,  in  which 
death,  corruption,  earth,  and  worms  are  to  hold 
high  carnival  over  an  essential  part  of  your 
personal  being? 

Finally.  What  the  influence  upon  your 
Christian  life  ?  Not  your  merely  Churchly, 
doctrinal,  theological,  orthodox  life,  but^  your 
Christly,  spiritual.  May  I  ask  you  how  much 
of  real  food  or  inspiration  for  this  life  do  you 
get  out  of  your  merely  nominal,  orthodox  be- 
lief in  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  of  your 
earthly  body  at  the  last  day  ?  Think  of  it 
ever  so  earnestly,  take  it  in  in  all  its  fullness, 
and  how  much  does  it  quicken  you  in  the 
Divirue  life  ?  And  think  you  will  it  be  less 
quickening  to  realize  by  faith  that  the  spiritual 
resurrection  and  future  glorification,  even  of 
your  earthly  body,  does  begin  with  the  regen- 
erating, life-giving  operation  of  the  indwelling 
Spirit  of  Christ? — that  it  depends  upon  and 
progresses  with  your  living,  personal  union 
with  Christ,  the  life-giving  Spirit — that  just  in 
proportion  as  your  life  is  hid  with  Christ — as 


214  SUGGESTIVE    INQUIRIES. 

you  die  unto  self  and  live  in  him — as  you 
know  him  in  the  fellowship  of  his  sufferings, 
in  conformity  to  his  death,  and  in  the  power 
of  his  resurrection,  you  do  attain  the  resur- 
rection of  the  dead,  soul  and  body — so  that 
at  death  you  may  realize  the  full  magnitude 
of  that  saying,  "  I  am  the  resurrection  and  the 
life  ;  he  that  believeth  in  me,  though  he  were 

.  yet  shall  he  live;  and  he  that  livcth  and 
believeth  in  me  shall  never  die  f%  Not  only  so, 
but  having  the  hope  that  even  soon  after  pass- 
ing from  this  world  you  may,  in  your  order, 
rise  from  the  mediate  world,  and  follow  your 

i  Lord  to  the  higher  heavens,  and  join  the 
great  multitude  who  have  gotten  the  victory? 
Can  it  be  possible  that  such  a  conception  of 
the  resurrection,  and  faith  in  such  a  resurrec- 
tion, can  be  dangerous  to  the  spiritual  life  of 
any  soul  ?  Can  it  be  possible  that  such  a  faith 
can  be  other  than  a  quickening  power  of  the 
true  spiritual  life  in  the  individual  soul  and  in 
the  Church  ?  But,  again  :  you  say,  does  such 
a  faith  in  the  resurrection  and  the  life  in  Jesus 
rest  upon  the  Word  of  God,  or  upon  mere 
human  perception?  And  again  I  say,  dear 
reader,    that   is   just    the    question   underlying 


THE    RESURRECTION    OF   THE   DEAD.      215 

the  most  interesting  theme  of  these  inquir- 
ies ;  just  the  question  I  would  press  upon  your 
heart  in  these  parting  words,  and  beg  you  give 
it  your  candid,  careful,  and  prayerful  consider- 
ation. My  aim  is  not  to  win  your  assent  to 
any  views  of  mine,  but  to  stir  you  up,  and,  if 
possible,  assist  you  in  discovering  just  what 
the  written  Word  does  say,  and  especially^ 
what  it  says  to  you,  and  for  you.  To  reach 
this  you  must  read,  compare,  pray,  and  think 
for  yourself.  And  may  we  ever  have  that 
humble,  dependent,  teachable  mind,  which  will 
lead  us  to  the  feet  of  Jesus  to  learn  of  him ! 
May  the  Spirit  of  Truth  lead  us  into  all  truth, 
that  the  truth  may  make  us  free!  And  may 
He  grant  unto  us  that  we  may  knoiv  him,  and 
the  power  of  his  resurrection,  and  the  fellow- 
ship of  his  sufferings,  being  made  conformable 
unto  his  death,  if  by  any  means  we  might 
attain  unto  the  resurrection  of  the  dead!    Amen. 


THE   END. 


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